Trump Whacks the Deep State

Last Friday, the Trump Administration notified many employees of the National Security Council (NSC) that they were being dismissed, as its bloated staff of 395 is being chopped in half. This downsizing is long overdue, and the need for reductions at the NSC is recognized by even the liberal media.

However, some employees had already left work early for the weekend, so they did not initially see these notices. This illustrates again the general lack of productivity in D.C. and how government employees there pay more attention to the media than to their jobs.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been the National Security Advisor since May 1, has urged Trump to take control over the career government workers in D.C., and Trump is doing that. “What you’ve committed to do on Cuba, what you want to do on Cuba, is never going to come from career staff,” Rubio advised Trump.

“It’s going to have to come from the top down. You’re going to have to tell them what to do,” Rubio added. Rubio holds the same position that Henry Kissinger held during the Nixon Administration, when Kissinger met multiple times every day with President Nixon.

A White House official observed that “the NSC is the ultimate Deep State. It’s Marco vs. the Deep State.” In support of this downsizing of the NSC, the White House official stated further that “we’re gutting the Deep State.”

An example was Ukrainian-born (then the USSR) Alexander Vindman and his twin brother Eugene, who were in key positions on the NSC during the first Trump Administration. Eugene complained about Trump’s perfect conversation with Zelensky and his brother, Alexander, then testified against Trump during the first impeachment hearings.

Now Eugene is a newly elected Democrat congressman in Virginia, while Alexander is reportedly considering a run as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Ashley Moody in Florida.

During the Revolutionary War in 1777, General Washington reportedly commanded, “Put none but Americans on guard tonight.” Historians clarify that Washington’s actual quote was this: “You will therefore send me none but Natives, and Men of some property, if you have them.”

Trump should have staff who are supportive and loyal to him working in his administration, as President Ronald Reagan did. California Supreme Court Justice William P. Clark turned down an opportunity to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court to help Reagan win the Cold War as his National Security Advisor. 

But the Cold War has been over for more than a quarter-century, and the NSC has been a failure under Democrat Administrations by not keeping us out of war. Within weeks of Trump taking office, the NSC orchestrated a bombing attack that Vice President JD Vance properly opposed.

Vance explained in early March that only 3% of American trade flows through the Suez Canal, while 40% of European trade does. It was not in America’s interest to bomb anyone there, but the NSC refused to listen to Vance and instead approved an attack on the Houthis.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wryly shouted in a column headline, “The $7 Billion We Wasted Bombing a Country We Couldn’t Find on a Map.” We lost not one but two F/A 18 Super Hornet fighter jets, each costing $67 million, one of which literally fell off its carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman.

Mike Waltz was initially appointed as National Security Advisor, but quickly, MAGA grassroots howled in protest over placing a neocon in this key role. On May 1, Trump astutely reassigned Waltz to be Ambassador to the United Nations, where he cannot entangle America in foreign wars.

The NSC is the nerve center of the resistance in D.C. to conservative leadership. President Reagan wisely downgraded the NSC to force it to report to his Chief of Staff, rather than allow it to continue as though it ranked above everyone else, including the president.

Trump could shut down the NSC entirely, and nothing would be missed. The Deep State no longer protects Americans against foreign enemies, but instead protects the bureaucracy against the will of the American People.

Trump’s bold action to fire most of the NSC staff comes at the same time that Elon Musk has announced his quiet exit from the political stage. Musk declared earlier this month that he has already given enough toward elections and plans to focus more on his businesses instead.

This creates a void, and politics abhors a vacuum. Musk effectively framed the debate around the need to downsize the federal government, including firing thousands of employees. He was instrumental in blocking overregulation by a new requirement that 30 million Americans register their private information with the Treasury Department’s FinCEN. 

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organization with writing and policy work.