WASHINGTON ― A significant number of staff members of theWhite House National Security Councilwere dismissed from their positions on May 23 as the Trump administration carried out a major restructuring of the agency. The firings, reported bythe Washington Post,Reutersand other media outlets, came three weeks after PresidentDonald Trumppushed out former national security adviser Mike Waltzand made Secretary of StateMarco Rubiothe interim head of the NSC. Staffers who dealt with a wide rang of geopolitical issues received termination notices as part of an NSC restructuring, which is expected to grant more authority to the State and Defense departments. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. CNN reported morethan 100 NSC employees received notices at about 4:20 p.m. ET, notifying them they were put on administrative leave and giving them 30 minutes to clean out their desks. The workers represented a sizable share of the overall NSC workforce, which grew to about 300 workers under PresidentJoe Bidenbut had already been operating with less than half that figure under Trump. Axios quoted an unnamed White House officialwho said, "The NSC is the ultimate Deep State. It's Marco vs. the Deep State. We're gutting the Deep State." The Trump administration has terminated tens of thousands of employees across the federal government, and forced out even more though voluntary buyouts, as part of the Department of Government Efficiency launched byElon Musk. The restructuring comesafter Trump in April fired multiple senior NSC officialsflagged by right-wing activist Laura Loomer as being disloyal to Trump during a White House visit. Loomer also raised concerns about Waltz, who Trump nominated as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations after Waltz resigned as national security adviser. Contributing: Reuters. Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Trump's National Security Council slashed amid large-scale firings
