Associated Press, by AAMER MADHANI and ZEKE MILLER
Washington (AP) According to a U.S. official familiar with the situation, incoming senior Trump administration officials have started questioning career civil servants who serve on the White House National Security Council about their political contributions, who they voted for in the 2024 election, and whether they have made any social media posts that President-elect Donald Trump might find incriminating.
According to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters, at least some of these nonpolitical employees have started packing up their belongings after being questioned about their loyalty to Trump after receiving signals that they would be asked to remain at the NSC in the new administration.
In order to guarantee that the council is staffed with people who support Trump’s agenda, Trump’s choice for national security adviser, Florida Representative Mike Waltz, has made it clear in recent days that he intends to remove all career intelligence officials and nonpolitical appointees from the NSC by Inauguration Day.
At a time when the United States is facing challenging policy issues in Ukraine, the Middle East, and elsewhere, Trump’s team may lose a great deal of institutional knowledge and experience if foreign policy and national security experts are abruptly removed from the NSC on the first day of the new administration. New policy specialists appointed to the NSC may be less inclined to voice policy disagreements and concerns as a result of such interrogation.
Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, is putting forth a strong argument for the Trump administration to retain career federal personnel assigned to the NSC, at least in the early going.
Sullivan stated on Friday that it is crucial to have a team that is up to date and prepared to continue serving at 12:01, 12:02, and 12:03 p.m. on the 20th, considering all that is happening in the world.
The majority of the NSC employees being asked about their loyalties are subject area specialists who have been temporarily sent to the White House by federal agencies, such as the FBI, CIA, and the State Department, for periods of one to two years. They would be sent back to their home agencies if they were removed from the NSC.
According to the official, the government servants’ vetting process started last week. Trump appointees who would be NSC directors and who had urged them to stay weeks earlier had questioned several of them about their political views. Numerous NSC directorate-level federal officers had expected to stay at the White House during the next administration.
Another American source told the AP that incoming Trump administration officials told him weeks ago that they intended to examine career appointees at the White House, including those at the NSC, about their political views. However, the official had not yet been fully vetted and was not permitted to make public comments.
Last week, Waltz informed Breitbart News that everyone will be leaving at 12:01 on January 20. He went on to say that he wanted the NSC to be staffed by those who fully support the president’s objectives.
Waltz stated, “We’re currently working through our process to get everyone their clearances and through the transition process.” Our parents are aware of who we want in the agencies, so we are making those requests, and the detailees will all return.
Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, a Trump transition official stated that the new administration believed it was perfectly acceptable to look for individuals who would be focused on the same objectives and share the future president’s vision.
During the Truman administration, the NSC was established as a branch of the White House with the responsibility of coordinating across government agencies and providing the president with advice and assistance on international and national security matters. Even when the White House switches parties, it is typical for experts assigned to the NSC to remain in their positions from one administration to the next.
Sullivan stated that he had not discussed the staffing issue with Waltz and that the future national security adviser would have to make the final decision. I can only describe what we did and what I believe worked.
“We have a real diversity of people in terms of their views, their politics, and their backgrounds because when they are chosen to come over, they are not chosen based on their political affiliation or their policy opinions, but rather on their experience and capacity,” Sullivan said of those assigned to the NSC. The fact that we receive the best of the best from organizations like the State Department, the Pentagon, the intelligence community, and the departments of Homeland Security and Treasury is what unites them all.
Sullivan pointed out that Biden inherited the majority of his NSC team from the departing Trump administration when he assumed office in 2021.
According to Sullivan, those people were fantastic. They were excellent.
Two professional military officials assigned to the NSC came forward as whistleblowers during Trump’s first term, expressing their concerns about Trump’s 2019 call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyyin, who requested a probe into Biden and his son Hunter. Trump’s first impeachment resulted from that incident.
In his capacity as an NSC officer, Alexander Vindman was listening to the call when he heard something that startled him. He went up to Eugene, his twin brother, who was working as an ethics lawyer at the NSC at the time. Both Vindmans informed supervisors of their worries.
In a statement released on Friday, Alexander Vindman said that senior policy staff members throughout the government would be intimidated by the Trump team’s strategy for filling the NSC.
Talented professionals will either self-censor or choose not to work at all, he continued, because they fear getting fired for taking moral positions or giving unbiased counsel.
Trump mocked the two soldiers as insubordinate, while Democrats praised them as patriots for speaking up. In November, Eugene Vindman was elected as a Democrat to serve in the 7th Congressional District of Virginia.