President Trump is considering firing Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, according to a report on Monday.
Trump is fed up with Ross over the lack of progress in trade negotiations and the defeat in the administration’s fight to get a citizenship question added to the 2020 Census, White House aides and allies of the president told NBC News.
The president reportedly has discussed finding a replacement for Ross in phone calls with close allies in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling that blocked the question from being added to the census.
The network also said Trump has been frustrated with how Ross has run the Census Bureau, which is within the Commerce Department.
Ross, one of the few original cabinet officials remaining in the Trump administration, could be pushed out as soon as this summer, the report said.
His saving grace, however, could be his personal relationship with the president — and that Trump doesn’t want to have to push out another cabinet member so soon after Labor Secretary Alex Acosta’s resignation.
The two have known each other since the 1990s, when Ross represented some of Trump’s creditors during his Atlantic City casino bankruptcies.
Ross, a registered Democrat, endorsed Trump in 2016.
The White House declined to comment to NBC News.
Commerce Department press secretary Kevin Manning said in a statement to The Post, “Currently, the Secretary is overseeing the Department’s response to Hurricane Barry, including NOAA’s extremely accurate track and intensity forecast. On Friday, the Secretary joined the President on his visit to Wisconsin and Ohio, and will continue to work on behalf of the American people and the President’s America First agenda.
“He has shepherded the Department of Commerce into a new era, where, under the President’s leadership and direction, we have better supported American businesses from unfair trading practices and have reinforced our national and economic security at long last.”