The administration of Donald Trump, the president-elect who has shown loyalty to no one, including one of his own sons, is scrutinizing the fealty of career civil servants who work on the National Security Council.
According to a Monday report from the Associated Press, these specialists have faced questions ranging from their political allegiances to whether they’ve ever made social media posts that could be seen as incriminating to Trump’s team. These experts are also reportedly getting grilled on who they voted for in last year’s presidential election and their past political contributions. This comes after the bureaucrats were told they’d be asked to continue their work under a new president.
These loyalty tests are preposterous, in part, because Trump himself wouldn’t even pass muster—particularly the note about not having incriminating social media posts. Among other examples, in an August 2023 indictment that alleged Trump and his associates conspired to overturn the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election, prosecutors cited Trump’s social media posts as evidence.
Even if Trump himself can’t adhere to his team’s made-up evaluations, the incoming administration’s latest actions toward those working on the NSC raise questions about how the president-elect will squelch an anti-Republican bias in his staffing approach. Right now, the evidence suggests that Trump is hellbent on surrounding himself with MAGA loyalists.
But the nonpolitical NSC officials, who are usually plucked by federal agencies and loaned to the White House temporarily, aren’t having this. In fact, according to AP, many have quit in response to the alleged tests.
There’s been a push to, at the very least, keep these employees in place until Trump’s administration has a better handle on its far-ranging policy goals. But their leaving might be exactly what Trump’s new team wants.
The president-elect’s choice for national security adviser, Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, suggested in a recent interview with Breitbart he wanted to axe all nonpolitical appointees and career intelligence officials on the NSC by Inauguration Day, or Jan. 20. He said that this would help ensure that the department is staffed with people who are “100% aligned with the president’s agenda.”
“Everybody is going to resign at 12:01 on January 20,” Waltz told the aggressively pro-MAGA outlet. “We’re working through our process to get everybody their clearances and through the transition process now. Our folks know who we want out in the agencies, we’re putting those requests in, and in terms of the detailees they’re all going to go back.”
With this, Waltz was merely doubling down on a promise he’d made at least once before. In another post to social media last week, he wrote that “anyone” working in the NSC during Trump’s second White House stint would be “fully aligned with his America First Agenda.”
“We will clear the decks to Make America Great Again,” Waltz posted to X.
Let me be clear: anyone working under President Trump in the NSC will be fully aligned with his America First agenda. Any rumors or suggestions to the contrary are fake news and a distraction from the mission. We will clear the decks to Make America Great Again! 🇺🇸— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) January 6, 2025
Statements like this certainly aren’t a good look for Team Trump. After all, they’re already falling short of hiring goals. And it’s likely that the incoming administration’s rigorous—though unnecessary—vetting process, geared toward ensuring loyalty to Trump, will continue to slow the speed at which his administration can bring on fresh blood.
Plus, a mass exodus of national security experts might not be a good look for the NSC or Trump, whose team is already tempering expectations regarding the president-elect’s once-promised foreign policy agenda.
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