White House dismisses dozens of National Security Council staff in Trump-backed downsizing

Dozens of staffers were abruptly fired from the White House National Security Council on Friday, as President Donald Trump moved to dramatically slash the scope and size of the once-powerful body, said people familiar with the matter. Staff dealing with major geopolitical issues, from Ukraine to Kashmir, were terminated, said sources while requesting anonymity.

The move came just weeks after Secretary of State Marco Rubio took over from Mike Waltz as national security adviser.

The NSC restructuring is likely to further shrink the agency’s influence, in a big transformation from an influential policymaking body into a small organisation focused on simply implementing the president’s agenda, the sources said.

The move will pave the way for giving more authority to the State Department, the Defense Department, and other departments and agencies involved in diplomacy, national security, and intelligence matters.

The Trump administration aims to reduce the final headcount at NSC to just a few dozen people.

Previously, the NSC staff was involved in key decisions regarding America’s approach to the world’s most volatile conflicts.

Several high-ranking staffers were fired earlier this year after right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer handed Trump a list of staffers she perceived to be disloyal.

The cuts were made under President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser, Marco Rubio, who also is serving as secretary of state. Rubio, who has emerged as a key figure in the administration, was tapped for the White House post early this month after his predecessor as national security adviser, Michael Waltz, was pushed aside following a series of missteps.

Waltz, the previous national security adviser, had accidentally shared information on an imminent bombing campaign in Yemen with an Atlantic journalist.

Trump has said he intends to nominate Waltz to be his ambassador to the United Nations.

Most NSC staffers are from other parts of the federal government and were expected to go back to their home agencies, including the State Department, Pentagon and intelligence agencies.

Since Waltz’s ouster, administration officials have signalled a major scale-down of the National Security Council was imminent. Some have argued that the NSC had become bloated under previous administrations.

Hegseth curtails press access inside Pentagon to curb leaks

Meanwhile, defense secretary Pete Hegseth dramatically curtailed press access inside the Pentagon in a move deemed as punishing the news media for reporting on leaks of classified and unclassified information in the recent weeks.

The changes, announced in a two-page memo issued by Hegseth, effectively boxed credentialed reporters into one corner on one floor of the building that houses the press office and spaces used by news organisations.

Reporters will now need to request permission to walk anywhere else in the Pentagon, including past areas occupied by the joint chiefs and the press office for the joint chiefs, and will be escorted by an official, the memo said.

Reporters will also be banned from accessing the Pentagon Athletic Center and be issued new credentials, which more clearly state the word “PRESS” on the badge. The current credential has the letters written in regular size at the bottom.

Hegseth said he was adding the most draconian access restrictions in decades in a bid to limit the number of leaks coming from the Pentagon.