President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have launched a sweeping reorganization of the National Security Council, cutting its size nearly in half and shifting many of its functions to the State and Defense departments.
A senior White House official directly involved in the process described the NSC as “the ultimate Deep State.”
“It’s Marco vs. the Deep State. We’re gutting the Deep State.”
According to current plans, the NSC’s 350-person staff will be reduced by approximately 50 percent, with those removed reassigned to other government roles.
“The right-sizing of the NSC is in line with its original purpose and the president’s vision,” Rubio said. “The NSC will now be better positioned to collaborate with agencies.”
Inside the White House, officials view the existing NSC structure as overly complex and bogged down in procedural layers that obstruct swift decision-making. One official pointed to a maze of advisory panels and committees—like the sub-PCC, PCC, DC, and PC—that feed into each other in a hierarchy that slows everything down. “That’s the bottom-to-the-top approach that doesn’t work. It’s going away,” the official said. “All those things feeding up to principals are the unnecessary piece.” Another official added that the NSC’s new role will be strictly to “coordinate and advise — not carry out — policy.”
“If you have officials fighting each other and their agencies always involved in turf wars, you maybe need this process,” a senior administration official said. “That’s not what you have here. Rubio, [Treasury Secretary Scott] Bessent, [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth, [Attorney General Pam] Bondi — all of them know each other and like each other, and they know they’re there to execute the president’s will.”
Officials pointed to last week’s directive from Trump to eliminate sanctions on Syria as an example of the new structure in action. Immediately after the president’s announcement, Rubio, Hegseth, and Bessent ordered their deputies to implement the decision, while Bondi—whose office had previously designated Syria’s leader a terrorist—also complied. “It was complete reverse workflow: Here’s what the president wants, get it done,” a White House official said. “It wasn’t, ‘Oh, let’s get the sub-PCC to send it to the PCC to go to the DC to go to the PC.’”
Rubio will continue to serve as acting national security adviser. One insider said Trump wants Rubio in the role “as long as possible,” describing him as “the one in charge and calling the shots.” Under the new setup, Andy Baker and Robert Gabriel will serve as deputy national security advisers. Baker, who is also national security adviser to Vice President Vance, will retain that role while taking on new responsibilities. Gabriel is currently assistant to the president for policy.
