The National Security Council is a ¹cushy job inside the White House filled with bureaucratic analysts and people who are in place in an attempt to steer policy. Many of those detailed to the NSC represent the interests of the Silo agency from which they originate.
The National Security Council contains approximately 350 full-time employees. The National Security Advisor, now Marco Rubio, is in charge of the NSC. Secretary Marco Rubio just fired more than 100 of them. A few quotes from Axios are beautiful, and telling:
(…) “The NSC is the ultimate Deep State. It’s Marco vs. the Deep State. We’re gutting the Deep State,” the official said of the move, which will cut the NSC staff to about half of its current 350 members. “The right-sizing of the NSC is in line with its original purpose and the president’s vision,” Rubio told Axios in a statement. “The NSC will now be better positioned to collaborate with agencies.” [link]
WASHINGTON DC – The Trump administration has put more than 100 officials at the National Security Council at the White House on administrative leave on Friday as part of a restructuring under interim national security adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to two US officials and another source familiar with the matter.
(…) An email from NSC chief of staff Brian McCormack went out around 4:20 p.m. informing those being dismissed they’d have 30 minutes to clean out their desks, according to an administration official. If they weren’t on campus, the email read, they could email an address and arrange a time to retrieve their stuff later and turn in devices.
The email subject line read: “Your return to home agency,” indicating that most of those affected were detailed to the NSC from other departments and agencies.
On Thursday, Rubio convened a meeting with principals, which raised speculation that it was about the re-organization, the official said. And on Friday at 3:45 p.m., shortly before the email went out, senior directors were summoned to a meeting with Rubio.
[…] Those put on leave include career officials, as well as political hires made during the Trump administration.
In recent weeks staffers were being re-interviewed by the Office of the Presidential Personnel as the reshaping of the office was taking place, sources said. One of the questions asked was what officials thought was the appropriate size of the NSC, one source said.
Staffed by foreign policy experts from across the US government, the NSC typically serves as a critical body for coordinating the president’s foreign policy agenda.
But under President Donald Trump, the NSC’s role has been diminished, with the overhaul expected to further reduce its importance in the White House. (read more)
Remember the Susan Rice Benghazi “talking points” about a YouTube video? Remember Tommy “Dude” Vietor? Remember Alexander Vindman? Yeah, all from the National Security Council.
To give you an expanded perspective on how the NSC operates, compared to what the institutional DC interests tell us about it, it’s worth remembering that Tom Donilon’s daughter was appointed to the NSC after college. lol
2022: Tom Donilon’s daughter, Sarah Donilon, who graduated college in 2019, now works on the White House National Security Council {link}
“Marco Rubio: 25% then / 70% now. Remarkably his confrontation with the Senate, with USAID, with VISAs, and calling Ukraine a “USA proxy war” were big jumps in the effectiveness and competency versus what was expected. Still watching for direct IC confrontation with his move to NatSec Advisor, but I totally understand why President Trump is supporting him with more authority.”