National Security Council Members Quizzed on Trump Loyalty: AP
The incoming Trump Administration is reportedly quizzing civil servants working at the White House National Security Council (NSC) about their political affiliations and loyalty to the incoming president.
According to the Associated Press, questions include who they voted for in the 2024 presidential election, political contributions, and whether they made social media posts that would be considered incriminating by the Trump transition team.
The AP says some of the civil servants are quitting after being asked about loyalty to Trump.
Former Congressman Michael Waltz (R-FL), the president’s pick for national security adviser, told Breitbart that he “will clear the decks” at NSC so that it is staffed by people “100 percent aligned with the president’s agenda.” Waltz added that “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.”
The NSC staff members reportedly being questioned are largely subject matter experts loaned to the White House from other agencies including the State Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). If removed from the NSC detail, they would be sent back to their home agency.
Outgoing National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan urged the Trump Administration to keep many of the civil servants at NSC, noting that the Biden Administration kept many of the NSC members from the first Trump presidency.
“When they are selected to come over, they’re not selected based on their political affiliation or their policy opinions, they’re selected based on their experience and capacity and so we have a real diversity of people in terms of their views, their politics, their backgrounds,” Sullivan said. “The common element of all of it is we get the best of the best here.”
Representative Gerry Connolly, top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee warned that vetting NSC civil servants “threatens our national security and our ability to respond quickly and effectively to the ongoing and very real global threats in a dangerous world.”
The NSC is charged with advising and assisting the president on national security and foreign policy as well as improving coordination between government agencies.