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.
CNN previously reported that a significant overhaul of the body in charge of coordinating the president’s foreign policy agenda was expected in the coming days, including a staff reduction and a reinforced top-down approach with decision-making concentrated at the highest levels.
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.
A flurry of emails from those leaving then started going out with personal contact information.
With this happening on a Friday afternoon before a long holiday weekend, the official called it “as unprofessional and reckless as could possibly be.”
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.
Earlier this month, Mike Waltz – who previously led the NSC – was removed from his role in the first major staff shakeup of the new administration. Trump announced that he would nominate Waltz to serve as UN ambassador and Rubio would replace him on an acting basis at the NSC.
Waltz had been on shaky ground within the administration – having lost most of his influence in the West Wing – after he inadvertently added a journalist to a messaging app group chat about highly sensitive military strikes.
Even before the Signal fiasco, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles had been privately unimpressed with Waltz. And weeks before he was out, his influence internally had been waning, illustrated best by Trump’s decision to dismiss several staffers from the NSC at the urging of far-right activist Laura Loomer, who told him they were disloyal.
CNN’s Katie Bo Lillis and Natasha Bertrand contributed to this report.
This story and headline have been updated with additional details.
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