Why the National Security Council Purge is Trump’s Pleasure

With special guest Curt Mills

Just before Memorial Day on Friday the Trump administration let go scores of staff from the National Security Council. The usual howling from the media and foreign policy establishmentarians ensued, but the Trump administration was signaling his intent to do this even during his first term. His point: that over the years — particularly in the Bush I and Obama administrations — the NSC has not only gotten bloated and unwieldy, but for President Trump in particular having much of the career staff burrowed in from the largely centrist/liberal foreign policy establishment, it was posing a real obstacle to his own agenda.

The purge, or you can call it for dramatic purposes the Memorial Day weekend massacre, also comes on the heels of Trump re-assigning his National Security Advisor Mike Waltz to represent the U.S. at the United Nations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been put into place as interim National Security Advisor and Andy Baker, foreign policy advisor to VP JD Vance, and Robert Gabriel, who advises Trump, have been appointed NSC deputies. Alex Wong, who was serving as Waltz’s deputy, has been reassigned elsewhere.

All of this is against the backdrop of international foreign policy developments of which the U.S. is at the center: a potential nuclear deal with Iran, ongoing attempts to bring the war to an end in Ukraine and a ceasefire and an end to the siege and killing in Gaza.

To say that personnel is policy and that each hiring and firing of top people will have an effect on how each of these core issues is resolved is an understatement, especially when one considers the real split in the Trump base over what kind of approach the administration should take. On one hand, the Waltz’s of the world would rather Trump take a hard line on Putin, China, and even go to war with Iran. Vance’s orbit is more about clearly defining what the U.S. interest is in each — and then acting accordingly, preferably not rushing in with guns blazing and putting U.S. servicemembers in harm’s way.

Here to sort out all of these dynamics is my good friend Curt Mills who is the Executive Director and Editor of the American Conservative magazine. He has written and spoken extensively about the Trump orbit and the dramatic shift in Washington when it comes to Republican politics and who is driving the conversation and policy here in the Imperial City.