(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Joshua Steinman, who served four years on the first Trump administration’s National Security Council, has warned that the incoming administration is allowing Biden staff to remain on the NSC.
Steinman publicized his allegations Sunday in a Twitter/X post opposing Donald Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Mike Waltz. Steinman said he opposed the selection of Waltz not because of his loyalty, but because he’s apparently reluctant to clean house at the NSC.
“I’m hearing (from multiple people) that a significant % of NSC Staff have been told that they will be allowed to stay. This is a serious error if true,” Steinman said.
When it comes to NSC Staff, PERSONNEL IS POLICY.
I'm hearing (from multiple people) that a significant % of NSC Staff have been told that they will be allowed to stay.
This is a serious error if true.
Removing people like this isn’t personal, its just prudent.
Here's why:
5/— joshua steinman (🇺🇸,🇺🇸) (@JoshuaSteinman) January 5, 2025
According to Steinman, about 50% of President Barrack Obama’s NSC staffers were allowed to stay on when Trump took office in 2017. That resulted in disaster, he said.
“Many who stayed undermined President Trump by PURSUING THEIR OBAMA GUIDANCE FROM UNTIL GIVEN EXPLICIT ORDERS TO STOP. (Some who stayed were great.) These civil servants had signed for a different POTUS. They weren’t mission aligned,” he said.
To Steinman’s point, Headline USA has covered how Trump’s Pentagon lied to him about the true number of troops in Syria—defying his orders for a draw-down.
Trump’s orders to withdraw from Syria came in 2018 and again in 2019, and each time officials either resigned in protest or outright deceived the President.
In December 2018, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned over the matter, as did Syria envoy Brett McGurk. And according to DefenseOne.com, military officials lied to Trump about how many troops were there.
Let me be clear: anyone working under President Trump in the NSC will be fully aligned with his America First agenda.
Any rumors or suggestions to the contrary are fake news and a distraction from the mission.
We will clear the decks to Make America Great Again! 🇺🇸
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) January 6, 2025
“We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there,” McGurk’s replacement, diplomat Jim Jeffrey, told the publication in November 2020.
Jeffrey added that the actual number of troops in northeast Syria is “a lot more than” the roughly two hundred troops Trump initially agreed to leave there in 2019.
Waltz responded to Steinman’s post on Monday, saying that his staff must be “fully aligned with his America First agenda.”
“Any rumors or suggestions to the contrary are fake news and a distraction from the mission,” he claimed—notably not denying the allegation that Biden staffers are being allowed to stay on board.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
