President Donald Trump has tapped Craig Trainor to lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division on an acting basis, Attorney General Todd Blanche announced late Tuesday. Trainor replaces Harmeet Dhillon, who resigned last week in the first senior departure from the administration since the midterm elections.
"I am pleased to announce that President Trump has appointed Craig Trainor as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division," Blanche posted on X on Tuesday evening. Trainor has served as the Department of Housing and Urban Development's assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity since October 2025, overseeing nationwide enforcement of federal fair housing and civil rights laws.
Trainor is a former aide to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, and his appointment fills one of several Justice Department vacancies that have opened since Democrats won control of Congress in the November 3 midterm elections. He takes over a division that Dhillon, a Trump ally confirmed in April 2025, redirected toward obtaining state voter rolls and challenging diversity policies at universities.
Dhillon, who led the division for around 18 months, formally submitted her resignation on November 5. She told Fox News Digital that she had decided to leave weeks before the elections and that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles had asked her to delay the announcement until after Election Day. She said she was returning to private legal practice.
Under Dhillon, the division dropped investigations into alleged constitutional violations by police departments, pursued lawsuits accusing UCLA and Harvard University of tolerating antisemitism on campus, and sought voter data from states. More than three-quarters of the division's staff from the start of Trump's second term, about 300 attorneys, left during her tenure, according to the Associated Press.
Trainor's appointment is the latest in a wider post-midterm exodus from the department. National Security Division chief John Eisenberg and the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jason Reding Quiñones, resigned on Friday, followed by Civil Division chief Brett Shumate on Monday. Trainor now inherits the division's voter-roll cases and the university lawsuits, priorities that will fall to him as the new Congress prepares to take office.
