Originally appeared at ZeroHedge
President Trump has ordered a significant reduction of staff at the National Security Council, according to Bloomberg, citing “five people familiar with the plans.” The cuts were described as part of a White House initiative to streamline the agency under new National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien.
Two of the people familiar with the decision to shrink the NSC insisted it was largely rooted in both the transition to O’Brien’s leadership as well as Trump’s desire to increase efficiency at the agency, which grew under former President Barack Obama. About 310 people currently work at the NSC. –Bloomberg
The cutbacks will primarily be carried out from attrition, “as staffers return from assignments at the NSC to their home agencies,” according to the report. Many of the council’s employees are career government employees who came from the State Department, Pentagon and intelligence agencies.
Members of Congress have periodically sought to reduce the size of the NSC in recent years. Some lawmakers have threatened to make the national security adviser a Senate-confirmed position if the administration didn’t reduce the number of people working at the president’s foreign policy shop. –Bloomberg
Bloomberg links the decision to a whistleblower complaint over Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however there is no evidence to suggest that’s true.
According to the New York Times, the whistleblower is a CIA officer who previously worked at the White House. Meanwhile, a second whistleblower is reportedly waiting in the wings, ready to corroborate the original whistleblower’s allegations that President Trump abused his office when he asked that Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son for corruption (perhaps this is all part of what Chuck Schumer described as the intelligence community having ‘six ways from Sunday‘ to get back at someone).
Last month, O’Brien took over the NSC after his predecessor, John Bolton, was fired following high-profile disputes with Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over North Korea and Afghanistan – part of which was a canceled meeting with Taliban leaders.
Some in the White House believed the NSC was leaking information that would benefit Bolton, according to the report.
Earlier this week, O’Brien appointed Alex Gray, formerly the National Security Council’s Oceania and Indo-Pacific security director, to be a senior adviser, according to three people familiar with the plan.
Gray’s appointment follows that of Matt Pottinger, who is now deputy national security adviser after serving previously as the NSC’s senior director for Asia. –Bloomberg
A former journalist and Marine who joined Trump’s NSC in 2017, Pottinger later became senior director for Asia, and has been intimately involved in talks with North Korea regarding its weapons program. He was instrumental in arranging for meetings between Trump and leader Kim Jong Un.
Hedonic framing.. Call me when the Clinton’s and Obama is in jail.
The gang is circulating.
Fire them.
Out of a cannon.
Into the sun.
TRUMP 2020
Man, what a vision! Made me feel like a child again, able to dream of good triumphing evil, good guys vs bad guys. Funny as hell image as well! Good one.
I actually think that trump envisages himself as the unquestioned Commander in Chief and that is what he working towards. the two latest potus’s have given away too much powers to other parts of the governments, like pentagon, like cia, like state department and whenever trump says something it’s immediately countermanded by one of the aforesaid institutions. and that is something he is working to correct – the president is the unquestioned leader and what he says can’t be and shan’t be questioned or interfered with. trump is a megalomaniac and believes he is invincible as a negotiator and all problems are better solved with no guns or war but at the table – guess what the MIC thinks about that or the deep state or fatso, whose future income is still resting with Lockheed or Northrup Grumman and won’t be available until he is free of office and his work as a sos has benefited the MIC und zu weiter.
“und zu weiter” ??vielleicht; und so weiter
“the whistleblower is a CIA officer” “meanwhile, a second whistleblower is reportedly waiting in the wings, ready to corroborate the original whistleblower’s allegations”. They are not whistleblowers, they are CIA operatives, doing their dirty job – spying on the president and reporting everything to their masters, who use collected (mis)information for these hysterical smear campaigns in controlled media. They will continue with these fabricated ‘scandals’ till elections. DemocraCIA.
So the 1st Whistle Blower who exposed ‘Chinese Whispers’ about Trumps call, is now about to be supported by another Whistle Blower who heard the ‘Chinese Whispers’ repeated somewhere else :)
Someone please put the US out of her misery and nuke the West Coast , Congress and New York.
American politics is an embarrassment to the American people. It’s a roll eyes frustration for many of us.
The Zionist gerrymandered election process is the root cause of the problem. And it goes beyond Jews. Zionism appeals to a class of social parasites for whom Jews, their political click and Israel are more important than their own citizens and nation. These Zionist sell outs are really disgusting.
Well said, Richard.
As for you felling embarrassed with American politics, I am also embarrassed and I am not American. :)
It also promotes corruption and just lining up at the trough to be successful, its not about hard work anymore, its about whose ass you can kiss.
I can kiss my wifes ass but thats it, im not a yes man, that is also why i dont work in an office.
WA is white, there’s no state income tax and you can get a pistol permit and buy an assault rifle. It’s not overrun with illegals like CA.
I was just a little kid when they shot JFK but this is the first time I remember thinking a president was actually getting better. It always seemed as their term went on and they broke every single promise, it just got more and more discouraging.
Trump, is a puppet certainly, but some odd things are happening. He has much to overcome so that a US president could finally pull a rabbit out of his hat. I am not holding my breath.
Whats happened with Trump, irrespective of anyone’s opinion of him, is the US elite, or in older jargon the current ruling class, are clearly showing they will not tolerate any challenge to their personal status or policy positions. Least of all from a disillusioned US public, and electorate, that voted for the rank outsider Trump in 2016. The US elites have relentlessly sought to reverse the election since announcement of results – and the administrative branches such as FBI and CIA have been the primary tools to attempt this reversal. Of course, legality is of no concern in this project, the elite never hold themselves accountable to the rules they demand of others.
Seems like there might be a battle of the oligarchs, so yeah that’s my view too.
What a joke. Piece of trash has been there almost 3 years, has added hundreds of billions to a bloated military budget but retards still want to repeat the same pathetic talking points. STFU you pos.
He is getting rid of those who do not blindly follow order and not part of the game.
So fundamental fishy, everything that follows, is built on a foundation of, they changed the paperwork for whistleblowers, days before blowers suddenly come pouring out of the woodwork.