Pivotal Trump Cabinet Nominee Lays Out Plans To Clean House: ‘We’re Taking Resignations’

Incoming National Security Advisor Mike Waltz intends to hit the ground running when President-elect Trump is sworn in later this month. In a recent interview with Breitbart News, the Trump nominee explained that every intelligence official from the federal various departments and agencies currently detailed to the National Security Council (NSC) will be asked to vacate the building by 12:01 p.m. Eastern Time on January 20, when the president-elect will officially take the oath of office.

Waltz explained that he has made his agenda and expectations “crystal clear” to members of the incoming administration, as well as those appointed by President Biden. “Everybody is going to resign at 12:01 on January 20,” he said. “We’re working through our process to get everybody their clearances and through the transition process now. Our folks know who we want out in the agencies, we’re putting those requests in, and in terms of the detailees they’re all going to go back.”

Under the current structure of the NSC, the National Security Advisor is tasked with managing a team of presidential appointees who oversee a wide range of what are referred to as “detailees,” who work at various agencies and departments across the federal government. Detailees are either assigned or appointed from their home agencies in order to work in an area they specialize in with the NSC. Those selected are generally career intelligence officers from agencies like the FBI, CIA, NSA and the Pentagon, as well additional other law enforcement and intelligence agencies. They then report back to the presidential appointees at the top, each of whom manage specific portfolios within the NSC.

The NSC maintains several, issue-specific portfolios on key areas like counter terrorism or cybersecurity, in addition to portfolios that focus on particular regions such as the Western Hemisphere, the Middle East, Europe and Asia. The detailees then help coordinate back to the various agencies and departments in order to ensure that the president’s agenda is properly enforced.

Waltz attends the Special Operations Forces (SOF) Policy Forum in 2019.
Photo: New America

During his first term in office, Trump faced a number of problems from career intelligence officers embedded within the NSC. Obama era intelligence officials played key roles in feeding the bogus Russian collusion hoax, while dozens of retired intelligence officials later signed a bogus letter claiming that the infamous Hunter Biden laptop was a “Russian disinformation” operation. Alexander Vindman — who served as a key witness in the first impeachment trial against Trump — was one such holdover who fought against Trump’s agenda from within the NSC.

Waltz told Breitbart News that cleaning out house and ensuring that there are no more holdovers is a day one priority for the new administration. In addition to resignations, the incoming National Security Advisor vowed to staff the crucial intelligence tool exclusively with detailees who are on board with the president-elect’s agenda.

“The issue with Vindman wasn’t during transition—the issue with Vindman was he was already slated to transfer but didn’t come in until the summer or fall after,” Waltz said. “So that’s one, number two—the folks that we’re bringing in are 100 percent aligned with the president’s agenda. Hell, the entire world seems to be aligned with his agenda if you just look at the outreach from world leaders and everybody who wants to come to Mar-a-Lago. So, there’s a little bit of a difference in that everybody was reflexively just against him [the first time] just for the sake of it and the Trump Derangement Syndrome was out of control in 2017.”

Going forward, Waltz is confident that the failures of the Biden Administration will rob anti-Trump elements lurking within the federal government of oxygen. Mainstream media outlets aggressively reported on the numerous hoaxes and false accusations levied against Trump from 2017-2020.

“Now, after seeing and feeling four years of progressive governance under Biden and seeing the world come unglued, we’re not even seeing the levels of resistance to his agenda—that’s just a broader point. But also the folks we’re bringing in, the key members of my team, have relationships out in these agencies and we know who is completely on board,” he said.