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

WASHINGTON AP President Donald Trump is ordering a major overhaul of the National Prevention Council that will shrink its size lead to the ouster of specific political appointees and return multiple career executive employees back to their home agencies according to two U S representatives and one person familiar with the reorganization The number of staff at the NSC is expected to be significantly reduced according to the executives 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 safety adviser Mike Waltz who in various techniques had hewed to traditional Republican foreign plan Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been serving as national shield 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 crucial foreign protocol 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 assurance and foreign procedures and coordinating among various authorities 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 people working at the NSC including about aid staff according to one official About to of those being ousted are guidelines or subject-matter experts seconded from other executive agencies They will be given an opportunity to return to their home agencies if they want Plenty of of the political appointees will also be given positions elsewhere in the administration the official announced 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 functionaries 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 conspiracy theories and promoted QAnon an apocalyptic and convoluted conspiracy theory centered on the belief that Trump is fighting the deep state and took credit for the ouster of the NSC representatives that she argued were disloyal And the White House days into the administration sidelined about NSC aides sending them home while the administration reviewed staffing and tried to align it with Trump s agenda The aides were career cabinet employees commonly referred to as detailees This latest shake-up amounts to a liquidation of NSC staffing with both career establishment 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 verified that the overhaul first communicated by Axios was underway Andy Baker the national shield adviser to Vice President JD Vance and Robert Gabriel an assistant to the president for approach will serve as deputy national measure 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 explained 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 authorities 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 disclosed It wasn t just Loomer who viewed Waltz suspiciously He was viewed with a measure of skepticism by various in the MAGA world who saw the former Army Green Beret and three-term congressman as too tied to Washington s foreign initiative 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 initiative 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 several of the United States majority challenging issues with adversaries