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The Trump administration’s high turnover in leadership is unprecedented and severely limits the role of the NSC.
Steve Slick is a clinical professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and directs the Intelligence Studies Project at the University of Texas-Austin. He was a member of CIA’s clandestine service, and served as a special assistant to President George W. Bush and the NSC’s Senior Director for Intelligence Programs and Reform. This essay was reviewed and approved by the CIA’s Publications Review Board.
This morning, Bloomberg reported that President Donald Trump had filed a revised National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-4) reorganizing the National Security Council.
The White House has released a revised National Security Presidential Memorandum reorganizing the structure of the National Security Council. The memorandum lists the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as "regular attendees" of the Principals Committee and no longer includes the President's Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon.
On Thursday, February 2, Senators Mark Warner (D-VA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced legislation to restrict National Security Council (NSC) membership and the composition of the National Security Council’s senior decision-making committee.
In 2012, I witnessed a scene that has been on my mind this week: then-Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough reprimanded a less experienced staffer for merely referencing the ongoing reelection campaign during a mid-level NSC policy meeting. Why? Because, he said, “politics have no place in the Situation Room.”
In response to outcry over President Trump’s reorganization of the National Security Council—and particularly Steve Bannon’s elevation to the NSC and his permanent invite to the NSC’s Principals Committee—Senator Mark
Earlier today, President Donald Trump issued NSPM-2, which reorganizes the National Security Council. Every president that comes into office creates a National Security Policy Memorandum to reorganize the NSC to reflect their own sensibilities. Below is a summary of how President Trump has organized his NSC.
The White House has just released National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 (NSPM-2), which defines the organization and functions of President Trump's National Security Council (NSC) and Homeland Security Council (HSC).
President Trump has signed three executive orders on reorganization of the National Security Council, U.S. strategy against ISIS, and ethics commitments by executive branch appointees. The three documents are available below. We will be posting summaries of the orders shortly.