Looks like the Trump administration is about to lose another Cabinet member. Politico reported late Thursday that Energy Secretary Rick Perry is set to announce he's stepping down, with sources "familiar with his plans" saying his departure would come by the end of next month. The Washington Post and New York Times confirm the news by way of their own sources, though the Post's sources say Perry, 69, will stick around until the end of the year. The Department of Energy, meanwhile, isn't showing its hand. "While the Beltway media has breathlessly reported on rumors of Secretary Perry's departure for months, he is still the secretary of energy and a proud member of President Trump's Cabinet," a DOE rep says in a statement. "One day the media will be right. Today is not that day."
Sources tell the Times the exit will be officially announced in "coming weeks." Although Trump's Cabinet has had a "historic level of turnover," per the Post, Perry has flown mostly under the radar and is one of the administration's longest-serving members. Two lines of speculation: that the move was prompted by scrutiny over Perry's recent travels to Ukraine (though there is no evidence he was involved in any conversations regarding the Bidens), or that it's a move he's been planning for some time ahead of a return to work in the private sector. Expected to fill his role, per Politico: Sources point to Dan Brouillette, the department's deputy secretary, who's said to have been sitting in Perry's chair at Cabinet meetings "for the past few months." (Perry went to Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky's inauguration in place of Mike Pence.)
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