Upheaval and purge planned for intelligence community after huge Donald Trump victory
Intelligence Online, July 11, 2024
The intelligence services were a major Trump obsession during his first term and will again be at the heart of his new agenda. The political realignment brought about by his victory has given him the means to radically transform a bureaucracy he has perceived as hostile.
Within the intelligence community, the shock caused by Donald Trump's outright victory in the presidential election is on a par with the apprehension generated by the candidacy of a man who promised to devote a possible second term to "retribution" against his enemies.That was demonstrated by the mobilisation against Trump's candidacy of more than a thousand former senior officials, both civilian and military, from the national security sector in the National Security Leaders for Americaassociation. Many former executives from the CIA, the NSA, the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) called for the election of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, believing her Republican opponent to be unfit to govern.
Radical reforms
Although intelligence was not directly addressed by Trump during his campaign, it is one of the priority issues that the 47th President of the United States intends to tackle. As revealed by Intelligence Online, the White House returnee may rely on a plan of drastic reforms, drawn up as part of
conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 by Dustin Carmack.
The central thrust of that project, part of the Republican ideology of streamlining the workings of the state apparatus, is to strengthen the management powers of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) over all 18 intelligence agencies. The aim is to give the DNI the means to act as an effective mouthpiece for the President, enabling him to tighten his grip on a bureaucracy perceived as hostile.
Currently an executive at Meta, Carmack could play an influential role due to his experience as chief of staff to John Ratcliffe when the latter served as DNI in the final months of Trump's first term. Florida senator Marco Rubio, currently vice-chairman of the Intelligence Committee and a very active
supporter of Trump's candidacy in the final weeks of the campaign, is also among the officials likely to get new responsibilities in the national security field.
Licence to purge
Trump's huge presidential win, coupled with a clear majority for his party in the Senate, gives the future president a free hand to carry out far-reaching reforms of the intelligence community. That is all the more true given that his United States : Upheaval and purge planned for intelligence
community after huge Donald Trump victory recurrent criticisms have helped to undermine the confidence that agencies such as the CIA and the FBI can inspire in the American public.
The strengthening of the DNI's powers envisaged by Carmack is likely to come at the expense of the CIA and its director, who will be kept well away from the Oval Office. The CIA's declining influence could be evident in areas like strategic analysis and open sources.
Human resources issues will likely be a major challenge over the coming months. On that point, Project 2025 clearly demonstrates the conservative camp's desire to purge the administration, well beyond the few thousand "political" appointees, subject to the ups and downs of changing administrations. For Carmack, there is a need to depoliticise the intelligence community, by combating what he calls the "woke culture" and the diversification of the workforce.
The aim is to strengthen the "analytical integrity" of the agencies and make them more effective against their prime target, China, at a time when the president-elect has promised his fellow citizens a new term marked by world peace.
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