Secretary of State Marco Rubio, working in his additional role as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, is reportedly going to significantly downsize the National Security Council and use his positions to carry out the president’s will on how NSC decisions are made, according to officials close to the matter.
Speaking to NBC News, the officials said the staff shrinkage at the NSC is designed to bring its decisions closer in alignment to Trump’s. Instead of a large staff making recommendations to the president, they would instead carry out Trump’s orders.
The NSC had 300 staffers in January. Shortly after taking office, Trump cut that by half, and the expected reductions could slice it further, leaving only 50 and 60 people on the council. The sources reportedly told NBC News that final decisions on reductions have not yet been made.
According to the officials, Rubio will not fire staff, but reassign them to other agencies.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to confirm in a statement to NBC News that at least some changes were coming to the NSC under Rubio’s watch.
“Secretary Rubio is doing an incredible job serving as both Secretary of State and White House National Security Advisor,” she said. “Under his leadership at the White House, the NSC team will be streamlined to ensure maximum efficiency and coordination with outside agencies.”
The number of workers on the NSC has changed over the years, shifting from administration to administration. During the presidency of Former President John F Kennedy, the NSC only had 20 employees. By 1991, there were 40. By the year 2000, the NSC had approximately 100 staffers, and that grew to 370 by the end of the decade as the War on Terror raged on in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The growth of the NSC was troubling to some members of Congress, including the late Arizona Senator John McCain, who moved to try to limit its size. In 2016 that effort was realized when Congress put a limit to the number of policy-focused positions at the NSC to 200.
Rubio has reportedly also discussed moving some of the NSC’s responsibilities to other agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. State Department, according to the sources.
The downsizing plans come after Trump fired some NSC members in April, just one day after he met with conservative provocateur Laura Loomer, who had previously questioned if “disloyal” people were working inside Trump’s administration.
Rubio took over the national security adviser role from Mike Waltz, who Trump removed in the wake of his much publicized Signal scandal. Waltz was reassigned as the nation’s next ambassador to the United Nations. Rubio will stay in the position for at least six months, according to Trump.
