Donald Trump’s incoming administration has begun loyalty testing National Security Council workers, causing some to even jump ship before the president-elect’s inauguration.
The nonpolitical officials have been asked a series of questions relating to their personal politics: Who they voted for in the 2024 election, their political donations and if they had made social media posts against Trump, according to reporting by the Associated Press.
The outlet said that “at least some” are packing up after the loyalty tests, which came after it seemed they’d be kept on for Trump’s term.
The White House’s current national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, said that he was not told by Trump, or the incoming advisor, Rep. Mike Waltz, of their plans to do the evaluations. In 2021, President Joe Biden kept most of the staff from Trump’s first term.
Just last week, Waltz told Breitbart that “Everybody is going to resign at 12:01 on January 20,” the day of Trump’s inauguration.
“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,” he said.
Waltz said that the newest team will be those who are 100 percent aligned with the incoming president.
Replacing everyone in the NSC is not without its struggles. Top Democrat Rep. Gerry Connolly said that the vetting “threatens our national security and our ability to respond quickly and effectively to the ongoing and very real global threats in a dangerous world.”
