Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is acting as national security adviser after the removal of Michael Waltz last month, is expected to make drastic changes to the National Security Council, including scaling down its size, according to sources with direct knowledge of his plans.
The idea behind shrinking the staff would be to reshape it to align with how President Donald Trump makes decisions, the sources told NBC News.
The smaller staff would mean that, rather than having a large group of advisers making policy recommendations for Trump, the president would instead direct his national security adviser on policy matters, with that person to lead the staff in carrying out his orders.
The NSC is run out of the White House and had about 300 staffers when Trump came into office. That number was cut in half in January, and the expected cuts under Rubio could bring the staff down to 50 or 60 people, but final decisions on the number have not yet been reached, NBC’s sources said.
Rubio isn’t planning on firings, but instead to reassign the staff members to other agencies, according to a senior administration official said to have direct knowledge of Rubio’s decision-making.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, praising Rubio in his dual role, said that under his leadership, the NSC will be “streamlined to ensure maximum efficiency and coordination with outside agencies.”
