Trump's drastic NSC cuts spark debate: Does fighting the 'Deep State' put national security at risk?

Fox News

3 days ago

As the White House trims over 100 aides from its National Security Council staff, some former officials and analysts are asking if the smaller team can meet the demands of a fast-moving and dangerous global security environment.
Roughly half of the NSC's 350-person team will depart in what the White House is calling a "right-sizing" of a historically bureaucratic body composed largely of career diplomats – many of whom are seen as out of step with the president's agenda.
Aides originally on loan from agencies like the State Department and the Pentagon are being sent back to their home departments. Political appointees placed on administrative leave have been told the White House will find other roles for them elsewhere in the administration.
Some former NSC officials told Fox News Digital it's too early to tell whether the overhaul will result in a more efficient agency – or one ill-equipped to deliver timely intelligence for national security decisions.
Privately, national security sources questioned whether Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is currently serving as interim national security advisor, might be paring back the agency to avoid internal power struggles once he returns to his original post.
Michael Allen, a former senior director at the NSC, said the staffing changes reflect President Donald Trump's desire for direct control over key decisions.
"I think he wants people to bring decisions to him earlier than previous presidents," Allen told Fox News Digital.
The NSC has charted rocky waters since it lost national security advisor Mike Waltz following the inadvertently publicized Signal chat. His deputy, Alex Wong, also recently departed the agency, and other aides who had a large impact on the administration's early foreign policy decisions were pushed out in Friday's restructuring.
Eric Trager, the senior director for Middle East issues who traveled with envoy Steve Witkoff for some of his Iran negotiations, is out. So is Andrew Peek, senior director for Europe and Eurasia, who helped coordinate the approach to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Additionally, the restructuring will move Andy Barker, national security advisor to Vice President JD Vance, and Robert Gabriel, assistant to the president for policy, into roles serving as deputy national security advisors.
"This happens naturally on NSCs, the kind of stasis we saw in the Biden administration is highly untypical," said Victoria Coates, former deputy national security advisor to Trump.
She noted that President Ronald Reagan had six national security advisors over two terms as president, in addition to two acting NSAs.
"For the president, he has legitimate concerns about the NSC from the first term, given what happened, and then, you know, there's no sugar-coating it: the situation with Signalgate was a problem for NSA Waltz," Coates went on. "The president is taking actions to get the NSC into a condition that he would have complete confidence in it."
With a slimmer NSC, the president is expected to lean more heavily on Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard for his daily intelligence briefings.
"One thing that makes this administration unique is that it's the president himself and a small circle of advisors who truly matter and make decisions," said Brian Katulis, a former NSC official and fellow at the Middle East Institute. "They just don't see the need for ongoing interagency meetings like in previous administrations."
Katulis added that the biggest risk isn't necessarily a lack of intelligence – but a lack of coordination.
"Rather than gaps in intel or knowledge, what I'd worry more about is whether different agencies are singing from the same sheet of music," he said.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment on Friday's cuts and their intent.
Others argue that the NSC has become bloated and is in need of a reset.
"The NSC under Democratic presidents grows to 300, 400 people," said former Trump NSC official Alex Gray. "It becomes its own department."
"When I was there, we took it down to about 110 people doing policy – and it could probably go down another 50 and still be effective," he said.
"Do you want an NSC that formulates and directs policy, or one that gives the president advice, lets him decide, and then implements it? You don't need hundreds of people to do that."
But the NSC is the primary agency tasked with making sure other agencies are in line with the president's agenda.
"Rather than preparing options for him, they should take his direction and implement it," said Coates. But, she added, "if you take it down too far, it's not going to have the manpower to implement those directions from the White House into the departments and agencies which are always bigger and better funded than the NSC."
"How many heads do you have to bash together to get them to do what the president wants them to do? Our experience was in the first term that we needed a fair amount of heft on our end to get them to do stuff they didn't want to do, like designate the IRGC as an FTO, for example," Coates added.
Even with a leaner staff, the NSC remains responsible for managing critical global challenges – from Iran nuclear talks and the war in Ukraine to military competition with China.
That puts added pressure on Rubio, who will bear the blame if any crucial intelligence slips through the cracks.
"The big issue is the national security advisor needs to make sure the president has all the information he needs to make a decision," Allen said.