Trump Admin Fires Several National Security Council Staffers
Dozens of staffers at the White House National Security Council were abruptly dismissed on Friday as the Trump administration undertook a sweeping effort to downsize the influential coordinating body, according to individuals familiar with the matter.
The dismissals affected both career officials detailed to the NSC and several political appointees, the sources said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the personnel changes, the Washington Post reported, along with other outlets.
The staff reductions were carried out under the direction of President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser, Marco Rubio, who is also serving as secretary of state. Rubio, now a central figure in the administration, was appointed to the national security role after his predecessor, Michael Waltz, was removed following several missteps after taking office.
Trump said he would nominate Waltz to be the United Nations ambassador.
“Since Waltz’s ouster, administration officials have signaled a major scale-down of the National Security Council was imminent,” the Post said. “Some have argued that the NSC had become bloated under previous administrations, peaking with around 400 staffers during the presidency of Barack Obama, allowing the White House to micromanage policy decisions.”
Following the cuts, the National Security Council will return to roughly the same size it was at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term, according to a source familiar with the matter told NPR.
Traditionally staffed by policy experts detailed from the State Department, Pentagon, intelligence agencies, and other national security institutions, the NSC serves as a key advisory body to the president on major diplomatic and security matters. However, its role has been notably reduced during Trump’s second term, the outlet added.
Instead of relying on recommendations from the NSC, Trump has increasingly turned to key members of his cabinet such as Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent—for guidance as he makes foreign policy decisions.
Toward the end of his first term, Trump also sought to scale back the NSC. That effort was led by Robert O’Brien, Trump’s fourth and final national security adviser during his first administration.
O’Brien, now serving as chairman of the consulting firm American Global Strategies, wrote earlier this month that President Trump is facing a familiar challenge in his second term—an oversized NSC filled with too many “holdovers” from prior administrations attempting to steer policy. According to a former NSC official who spoke to NPR, O’Brien’s article was one of the key factors that prompted the recent round of staff cuts.
O’Brien noted that by the end of Trump’s first term, the NSC had been reduced to around 110 staffers, and he believed there was still potential for further consolidation.
“We believe the NSC policy staff could be streamlined to 60 people, the same number of NSC staffers that President Dwight D. Eisenhower employed,” O’Brien wrote in the Washington Times op-ed with Alexander Gray, CEO of their firm.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department is assembling a team of lawyers prepared to defend the most controversial elements of Trump’s agenda in court.
As part of the effort, the department has dismissed career attorneys who were considered obstacles and brought in dozens of political appointees committed to advancing the president’s priorities.
That said, every president brings in staffers who are considered “loyal” or on board with the commander-in-chief’s political objectives, and Trump is not acting outside of his authority.
“The new hires are already appearing on behalf of the government to defend Trump’s efforts to remake immigration policy and the federal workforce and to expand the powers of the presidency,” said a Washington Post report. “They sometimes sit in front of judges alone, without the cadre of veteran attorneys who typically show up for big cases.”
