# After Mike Waltz Exit, Trump Slashes NSC Staff

- Link: https://instituteforglobalaffairs.org/2025/05/after-mike-waltz-exit-trump-slashes-nsc-staff/
- Published: 2025-05-27T20:42:05-04:00

[Meet the NSC](https://instituteforglobalaffairs.org/2025/05/mapping-the-trump-47-administration-nsc-key-figures-and-leaders/#Meet-The-NSC)

[Trump’s NSC, Explained](https://instituteforglobalaffairs.org/2025/05/mapping-the-trump-47-administration-nsc-key-figures-and-leaders/#Trump's-NSC-Explained)

[Primary Docs](https://instituteforglobalaffairs.org/2025/05/mapping-the-trump-47-administration-nsc-key-figures-and-leaders/#Primary-Docs)

## **On May 23, the Trump White House enacted a major overhaul of the National Security Council (NSC)**.

Since 1947, the NSC has been a key advisory body to the president and its influence
over policy has expanded in recent decades. Now, its headcount will be cut by half,
if not further. This will change the way US foreign policy is made.

These layoffs come just three weeks after President Trump removed Michael Waltz 
from the role of national security adviser and appointed Secretary of State Marco
Rubio to the position.

Despite its outsized power in Washington, the National Security Council is not well
known to the general public, which is why the Institute for Global Affairs at Eurasia
Group has been closely tracking personnel moves and how they translate into policy.

Many of the senior NSC staff profiled in IGA’s in-depth resource — [Who’s Who on Trump’s National Security Council](https://instituteforglobalaffairs.org/2025/05/mapping-the-trump-47-administration-nsc-key-figures-and-leaders/#Meet-The-NSC)—
have now been pushed out of their roles. Among those reported to be departing are
Principal Deputy National Security Adviser **Alex Wong**, Senior Director for the
Middle East and North Africa **Eric Trager**, Senior Director for Europe **Andrew
Peek**, as well as communications team members like Deputy National Security Adviser
for Strategic Communications **Brian Hughes**. Some of these staffers are likely
to be reshuffled to other agencies.

In the place of Alex Wong, two White House officials will take on expanded portfolios.
Vice President JD Vance’s national security adviser Andy Baker and White House deputy
chief of staff Robert Gabriel have both been tapped as deputy national security 
advisers, [according to CBS](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-national-security-council-trimmed-in-restructuring/).
Baker, who holds a doctorate in international relations from the University of Oxford,
previously worked as an adviser in Vance’s Senate office. Gabriel worked as a White
House speechwriter during Trump’s first term and is a former associate producer 
of _The Ingraham Angle_ on Fox News.

Details are emerging on how the NSC will look after its makeover. “Some of the teams
on the council that focus on specific regions or issues will be gutted, while others
will be collapsed and folded into others. Still other teams will cease to exist,”
[_The New York Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/us/politics/national-security-council-cuts.html)
reported.

The staff of the NSC advises the president on matters of foreign policy and national
security. They regularly brief the president, prepare him for meetings with foreign
dignitaries, and coordinate national security policy across US government agencies.
But Trump and his allies have been critical of the NSC’s processes, which they say
are unnecessarily complex and privilege the opinions of career officials over the
policy preferences of the president. Axios [quoted](https://www.axios.com/2025/05/23/white-house-national-security-council-trump-rubio#:~:text=%22The%20NSC%20is%20the%20ultimate%20Deep%20State.%20It%27s%20Marco%20vs.%20the%20Deep%20State.%20We%27re%20gutting%20the%20Deep%20State%2C%22)
a Trump official who said, “The NSC is the ultimate Deep State. It’s Marco vs. the
Deep State. We’re gutting the Deep State.”

During Trump’s first term, four different national security advisers (and two acting
ones) served in the White House. Former national security advisers H.R. McMaster
and John Bolton have openly criticized the president. Allegations made by a NSC 
whistleblower set off Trump’s first impeachment hearings. 

This isn’t the first time Trump took aim at the NSC. During the Obama administration,
the NSC had 222 policy staffers; by the end of Trump’s first term, that number had
been reduced to 110.  

It’s not yet clear whether this is the start of a bigger transformation. The IGA
will continue to monitor the situation and update the website as new developments
unfold.

Stay tuned for more.

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### WHO’S WHO ON TRUMP’S NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL?

[Read more](https://instituteforglobalaffairs.org/2025/05/mapping-the-trump-47-administration-nsc-key-figures-and-leaders/)