Trump administration plans to overhaul National Security Council, weeks after Waltz’s departure

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are spearheading plans to overhaul the National Security Council and shift its main functions to other agencies like the State and Defense departments. 

The move is the latest effort to slim down a federal agency and comes weeks after Trump announced former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz would depart his post at the White House overseeing the agency. 

Trump announced the same day that Waltz was nominated to serve as United Nations ambassador. 

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President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., April 7, 2025. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

The plans to upend the agency would include whittling down the size of the National Security Council, which the Trump White House believes is full of long-term, bureaucratic staffers who don’t align with Trump’s agenda. 

Additionally, the restructuring will move Andy Barker, national security advisor to Vice President JD Vance, and Robert Gabriel, assistant to the president for policy, into roles serving as deputy national security advisors. 

Axios was the first to report the Trump administration’s restructuring plans. A White House official confirmed Axios’ reporting to Fox News Digital. 

A White House official involved in the planning said Trump and Rubio are driving the change in an attempt to target Washington’s so-called “Deep State.” 

“The NSC is the ultimate Deep State. It’s Marco vs. the Deep State. We’re gutting the Deep State,” a White House official told Axios. 

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks as President Donald Trump, right, looks on during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., April 30, 2025.  (Getty Images)

The National Security Council is located within the the White House and provides the president guidance on national security, military and foreign affairs matters. 

Waltz’s departure from the agency followed his involvement with other administration officials, like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in the Signal chat controversy over strike plans against the Houthis in March.

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National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stand as President Donald Trump (not pictured) meets French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House in Washington, D.C., Feb. 24, 2025. (Reuters/Brian Snyder)

Since Waltz’s departure earlier this month, Rubio has taken on the role of national security advisor. That’s in addition to leading the State Department and serving as acting archivist and acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the administration is aiming to dismantle this year. 

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Fox News Digital was the first to report that the State Department planned to absorb the remaining operations and programs USAID runs so it would no longer function as an independent agency. The move requires cutting thousands of staff members in an attempt to bolster the efficiency of the existing, “life-saving” foreign assistance programs, according to a State Department memo Fox News Digital obtained. 

Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.