The U.S. intelligence community has fractured so badly under President Donald Trump that former officials and experts are warning of failures like those exposed by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a new report.
Reuters reported that eight current and former officials and people briefed on the matter say that intelligence sharing on Iran and other global threats has slowed, and in some cases temporarily stopped, both with Congress and across the federal government.
Former officials and outside experts told Reuters the disruptions risk leaving policymakers with an incomplete picture of the threats facing the country, and the breakdown comes as the administration weighs whether to resume strikes on Iran after Tuesday’s midterm elections.
“All of these things are adding up in a really complex world where policymakers need to have a more sophisticated, nuanced, and integrated view of the world, and they are getting less,” said Beth Sanner, a deputy director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term.
The problems took root under former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Her office clashed with the CIA in what officials called one of the biggest turf wars in three decades, between two agencies that are key to preventing another 9/11.
The feud began when Gabbard’s office revoked the security clearances of current and former intelligence officials, and it grew so heated that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles had to intervene several times.
The ODNI itself was formed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Gabbard resigned in June, but the tension persists. The CIA has stopped co-authoring assessments with the National Intelligence Council, which pulls together the views of the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies. Since then, the council has slowed its output, and none of its assessments have focused on the war in Iran, five current and former officials said.
Gabbard’s office also briefly cut off intelligence reports to lawmakers twice, accusing them of leaking – after the June 2025 Iran intervention and again after the capture of Nicolás Maduro in January.
Officials said some analysts now avoid writing assessments that contradict the White House for fear of retaliation.
“This White House has made them irrelevant because the president treats unwelcome information as disloyalty,” said Julia Curlee, a former CIA analyst.
Morgan Muir, a former deputy DNI under President Joe Biden, warned that agencies are turning into “little lily pads,” and “everybody can pick their own lily pad to listen to.”
Some former officials are now working at Stanford’s Hoover Institution on a bipartisan plan to rebuild the intelligence community under the next administration.
The CIA said it “participates fully” in the assessment process, and an ODNI official said the council’s output remains close to “historic trendlines.” The White House did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
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