President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio continue to overhaul the National Security Council, shifting its main functions to other institutions such as the state and the defense sector.
The latest effort to slim down federal agencies a few weeks after Trump announced that former national security adviser Mike Waltz would be leaving his post at the White House, where he oversees the agency and serves as UN ambassador. Waltz himself began the rationalization process in January, one of his first moves as Trump’s national security adviser, when he ordered 160 NSC staff from work, waiting for a comprehensive review of overall alignment with Trump’s agenda.
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On April 7, 2025, President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vice President Marco Rubio, Secretary of State Marco Rubio (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House Oval Office in Washington, DC.
Current plans to support government agencies include cutting the size of the National Security Council, which the Trump White House believes is full of long-term bureaucratic staff that doesn’t align with Trump’s agenda.
Additionally, the restructuring will move National Security Adviser Andy Barker to Vice President J.D. Vance and Policy President’s assistant, Robert Gabriel, to the role of deputy national security adviser.
Axios was the first to report on plans to restructure the Trump administration. White House officials have confirmed Axios’ report to Fox News Digital.
White House officials involved in the plan said Trump and Rubio are driving change to target Washington’s so-called “deep state.”
“The NSC is the ultimate deep state. It’s Marco vs. Deep State. We are hindering deep state,” a White House official told Axios.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio says President Donald Trump is watching at the Cabinet meeting of the White House in Washington, DC on April 30, 2025 (Getty Images)
The National Security Council is located within the White House and provides presidential guidance on national security, military and foreign affairs.
Waltz’s departure from the agency followed his involvement with other administration officials, such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegses, in a signalling chat controversy over a strike plan against the Hoosis in March.
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National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses will meet French Emmanuel Macron at the White House in Washington, DC on February 24, 2025, as President Donald Trump (not pictured). (Reuters/Brian Snyder)
But the Waltz focused early in his brief tenure on issues of the Trump administration’s consideration of institutional “deep state” invasions. Former Green Beret and Florida House lawmakers were particularly concerned about the Biden administration’s political appointees and holdovers assigned to the NSC by other agencies.
Since Waltz’s departure earlier this month, Rubio has assumed the role of national security advisor. In addition to leading the State Department, this serves as a proxy archivist and proxy administrator for the US International Development Agency.
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Fox News Digital was the first to report that it no longer served as an independent agency as the State Department planned to absorb the rest of its work and to absorb the programs that USAID runs. According to the State Department’s Memo Fox News Digital, the move requires thousands of staff to reduce efficiency in existing “life-saving” foreign aid programs.
Emma Colton from Fox News contributed to this report.
Diana Stancy is a political reporter for Fox News Digital, covering the White House.
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