Democracy, Populism, & Domestic Politics, Power & Security, United States White House quietly trims dozens of national security experts

Perry World House Director of Communications and Research John Gans is cited in this article from Jerusalem Post, on recent changes to the National Security Council. 

“It sort of reflects a Trumpified version of government, which is you don’t really need a lot of staff,” said John Gans, author of White House Warriors: How the National Security Council has Transformed the American Way of War.“It’s not about getting everybody in the room,” he added. Trump, he said, prefers to say, “We’ll make the decision and everybody else can catch up.”

Foreign policy veterans warn that the size and speed of O’Brien’s cuts have left a vital part of the White House ill-equipped to respond to crises like the spreading coronavirus, which has killed more than 1,000 people in China.

Others faulted the NSC for lacking a coordinated response to Trump’s shifting calls for a US troop withdrawal from Syria, for its rocky efforts to limit Chinese tech giant Huawei’s growing role in global telecommunications infrastructure, and for the US drone strike that killed Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in Iraq, which some say nearly sparked a war with Iran.

Read more in Jerusalem Post >>