Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms delivered a fiery clap back to Donald Trump after the president announced her removal from the President’s Export Council—unaware that she had already resigned.
Trump, who has just returned to the Oval Office, took to Truth Social early Tuesday morning to announce a mass dismissal of appointees from the previous administration.
“Our first day in the White House is not over yet!” Trump wrote in a post titled You’re Fired.
He claimed his administration was working to remove over a thousand presidential appointees “not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again,” listing Bottoms among others like celebrity chef José Andrés and General Mark Milley.
However, Bottoms, who served as the council’s vice-chair, was quick to correct Trump in a pointed statement.
“A day late and a dollar short….My resignation from the President’s Export Council was submitted January 4, effective yesterday,” Bottoms stated. “You can’t fire someone who has already resigned.”
In a scathing follow-up, Bottoms took aim at Trump’s priorities, suggesting his late-night social media post reflected misplaced focus.
“Of all the things happening in the world, not sure why I am on Donald Trump’s mind at 1:30 am following his inauguration, but I count it as a badge of honor,” she quipped.
Bottoms, a seasoned critic of Trump, didn’t mince words about his approach to leadership.
“I do hope that his attention to detail will be much more keen when it comes to world affairs,” she added. “Targeting me, a chef feeding displaced people, and a decorated military general in the early hours via social media is not the best use of time for the President of the United States.”
Her comments recall her previous critiques of Trump’s leadership, particularly during the pandemic. Speaking to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she described Trump’s unpredictability as the “tipping point” in their working relationship.
“In the midst of the pandemic, the remarks he made—whether it was about injecting bleach or discouraging trust in science—were reckless,” she said.
Bottoms also clashed with Trump over his use of federal agents to suppress demonstrations against police brutality, co-signing a letter with other big-city mayors to condemn the actions.
After serving as Atlanta’s mayor from 2018 to 2021, Bottoms joined the Biden administration as a senior advisor and later took on a leadership role with the President’s Export Council in 2023.
José Andrés, another figure named in Trump’s dismissal post, echoed a similar sentiment in his response.
“My two-year term was already up,” the chef wrote on X (formerly Twitter), signaling that Trump’s announcement was moot.
Trump’s attempt to publicly embarrass his former appointees appears to have backfired, with both Bottoms and Andrés taking the opportunity to highlight the former president’s missteps. The incident has sparked a larger conversation about the return of Trump’s polarizing leadership style in his new term.