Rubio says the changes will better align the National Security Council with Trump’s agenda, but White House has yet to confirm any details.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has confirmed that the Trump administration is “right-sizing” the National Security Council (NSC), offering the first on-the-record statement about what appears to be a significant restructuring of the influential White House body.
“The right-sizing of the NSC is in line with its original purpose and the president’s vision,” Rubio told Axios in a statement on May 23. “The NSC will now be better positioned to collaborate with agencies.”
The comment from Rubio—who is serving as national security adviser following Mike Waltz’s exit from the role earlier this month—comes amid speculative media reports that President Donald Trump has ordered a sweeping overhaul of the NSC that will reduce its size, shift many career staff back to their home agencies, and remove several political appointees.
The White House has not publicly confirmed the scale or details of the changes, and administration officials did not respond to a request from The Epoch Times for confirmation and additional information about the reported restructuring.
The NSC, created in 1947 to coordinate national security policy across the federal government, has long been a lightning rod for internal disputes and power struggles. During Trump’s second term in the White House, the council has faced a broad staffing review aimed at aligning the NSC more closely with the president’s “America First” agenda.
“As anyone who has had the privilege of working here in the White House knows, it’s a tremendous honor to support the executive office of the president and the presidency itself,” Brian McCormack, chief of staff to the national security adviser, said in an all-staff call days after Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration. “We also know that every president is entitled to have a staff and the advisers that they need to implement the goals that the American people elected him to pursue.”
While Rubio did not address specific staffing changes in his comment to Axios, his statement appears broadly aligned with the administration’s goal of having an NSC that is more closely aligned with the president’s agenda.
No official timeline has been provided for when the restructuring may be completed, and it remains unclear how the changes will affect the NSC’s ongoing work.
The White House has not yet announced a permanent replacement for the national security adviser role after Trump nominated Waltz to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and picked Rubio to take his place temporarily.
Rubio’s dual role as secretary of state and national security adviser is not without precedent. In the 1970s, Henry Kissinger served in both capacities under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.