White House slashing staff in major overhaul of National Security Council, officials say

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is ordering a major overhaul of the National Security Council that will shrink its size, lead to the ouster of some political appointees and return many career government employees back to their home agencies, according to two U.S. officials and one person familiar with the reorganization.

The number of staff at the NSC is expected to be significantly reduced, according to the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive personnel matter.

The shake-up is just the latest shoe to drop at the NSC, which is being dramatically made over after the ouster early this month of Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz, who in many ways had hewed to traditional Republican foreign policy.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been serving as national security adviser since the ouster of Waltz, who was nominated to serve as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.

The move is expected to elevate the importance of the State Department and Pentagon in advising Trump on important foreign policy moves. But, ultimately, Trump relies on his own instincts above all else when making decisions.

The NSC, created during the Truman administration, is an arm of the White House tasked with advising and assisting the president on national security and foreign policy and coordinating among various government agencies.

Trump was frustrated in his first term by political appointees and advisers who he felt gummed up his “America First” agenda.

There were roughly 395 people working at the NSC, including about 180 support staff, according to one official. About 90 to 95 of those being ousted are policy or subject-matter experts seconded from other government agencies. They will be given an opportunity to return to their home agencies if they want.

Many of the political appointees will also be given positions elsewhere in the administration, the official said.

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The NSC has been in a continual state of tumult during the early going of Trump’s second go-around in the White House.

Waltz was ousted weeks after Trump fired several NSC officials, just a day after the influential far-right activist Laura Loomer raised concerns directly to him about staff loyalty. Loomer has in the past spread 9/11 conspiracy theories and promoted QAnon, an apocalyptic and convoluted conspiracy theory centred on the belief that Trump is fighting the “deep state,” and took credit for the ouster of the NSC officials that she argued were disloyal.

And the White House, days into the administration, sidelined about 160 NSC aides, sending them home while the administration reviewed staffing and tried to align it with Trump’s agenda. The aides were career government employees, commonly referred to as detailees.

This latest shake-up amounts to a “liquidation” of NSC staffing, with both career government detailees on assignment to the NSC being sent back to their home agencies and several political appointees being pushed out of their positions, according to the person familiar with the decision.

A White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed that the overhaul, first reported by Axios, was underway. Andy Baker, the national security adviser to Vice President JD Vance, and Robert Gabriel, an assistant to the president for policy, will serve as deputy national security advisers, according to the White House official.

Waltz, during his short tenure heading the NSC, came under searing criticism in March after revelations that he added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a private text chain on an encrypted messaging app that was used to discuss planning for a sensitive military operation against Houthi militants in Yemen.

Waltz has taken responsibility for building the text chain but has said he does not know how Goldberg ended up being included.

Loomer had encouraged Trump to purge aides who she believes are insufficiently loyal to the “Make America Great Again” agenda.

She also complained to sympathetic administration officials that Waltz was too reliant on “neocons” — shorthand for the more hawkish neoconservatives within the Republican Party — as well as what she perceived as “not-MAGA-enough” types, the person said.

It wasn’t just Loomer who viewed Waltz suspiciously. He was viewed with a measure of skepticism by some in the MAGA world who saw the former Army Green Beret and three-term congressman as too tied to Washington’s foreign policy establishment.

On Russia, Waltz shared Trump’s concerns about the high price tag of extensive U.S. military aid to Ukraine. But Waltz also advocated for further diplomatically isolating President Vladimir Putin — a position that was out of step with Trump, who has viewed the Russian leader, at moments, with admiration for his cunning in dealings with Trump’s predecessors.

His more hawkish rhetoric on Iran and China, including U.S. policy toward Taiwan, seemed increasingly out of step with Trump, who — setting aside belligerent rhetoric about taking over Greenland from Denmark — has tilted more toward military restraint and diplomacy in facing some of the United States’ most challenging issues with adversaries.

— Kim reported from Fishkill, New York.