WASHINGTON – Donald Trump has long viewed the nation's spy services with suspicion, accusing them of trying to undermine his first term and campaigns. Now that he's returning to the White House, Trump's promises to overhaul the U.S. intelligence agencies put him on a collision course with one of most secretive and powerful parts of government.
Trump announced Tuesday that he is nominating John Ratcliffe to lead the CIA. A former Republican congressman from Texas, Ratcliffe served as director of national intelligence for the final months of Trump’s first term, leading the U.S. government’s spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Ratcliffe is a more traditional pick for the position, which requires Senate confirmation, than some rumored loyalists pushed by some of Trump’s supporters.
For the CIA and other intelligence agencies, the start of Trump's second administration is a way to reset an often challenging relationship with a leader who has in the past dismissed them as the deepest of the deep state — Trump's label for the thousands of career federal employees that carry out the work of government regardless of who is president.
For Trump, the return to power offers an opportunity to follow through on promises to clean house of officials that he believes have tried to challenge his leadership and criticize his actions.
Former and current intelligence officials also are watching for clues indicating whether Trump will use U.S. intelligence to inform foreign policy and national security decisions or whether he will realize the fears of critics, who worry he could spill classified secrets or seek to weaponize intelligence work against Americans.
“If he comes in committed to retribution and cleaning house, that’s going to impact the agency. We're going to lose people, and there's going to be this fear: ‘What will get me in trouble politically?’” said Douglas London, a 34-year CIA veteran who now writes about intelligence work and teaches at Georgetown University.
In selecting Ratcliffe to lead the nation's premier spy agency, Trump chose a loyalist who has been willing to defend him in some of his most politically charged battles in Washington. When serving in the House, Ratcliffe was on Trump's advisory team during his first impeachment proceedings.
As intelligence director during the final days of the 2020 election, Ratcliffe angered Democrats by declassifying Russian intelligence alleging damaging information about Democrats during the 2016 race even though he acknowledged it might not be true.
Given his experience in Congress and the intelligence community, Ratcliffe is seen as a relatively traditional pick for the position of CIA director. House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, hailed Trump's selection in a statement, saying Ratcliffe “knows what it will take" to lead the agency and counter threats posed by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
If confirmed by the Senate, Ratcliffe will be responsible for carrying out any changes Trump has in mind for the CIA. Trump has said he wants a complete reorganization.
“We will clean out all of the corrupt actors in our national security and intelligence apparatus, and there are plenty of them,” Trump said in a video from 2023 that supporters recirculated following his win last week. “The departments and agencies that have been weaponized will be completely overhauled.”
In an effort to head off any difficulties with the president-elect, intelligence agencies are emphasizing their nonpartisan mission and their usefulness to any new president looking to understand a globe complicated by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and the growing partnership between China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.
London said that in his experience, intelligence officials work hard to avoid any appearance of partisanship and put their constitutional oaths ahead of politics.
“There’s very little agency officials can do,” London added, “other than to show: ‘We’re here, we’re on your team, we’re here to support you.’”
Intelligence officials won't say if Trump has already received an intelligence briefing, but the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a statement saying it is following a standard procedure for new presidents that dates to Dwight Eisenhower's election.
“ODNI is acting consistent with the tradition, in place since 1952, of providing intelligence briefings to the president-elect," the office wrote.
During his time in the White House or on the campaign trail, Trump has been anything but traditional, displaying an animosity toward the nation’s spy agencies unlike any seen since Richard Nixon, who believed the CIA and other agencies sought to undermine his presidency.
Trump often railed against the CIA and other spy agencies, accusing them of working to undermine his first administration and seeking to prevent him from retaking the White House. He also has blamed intelligence officials for questioning his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump received fewer intelligence briefings as president than any other recent commander in chief. In 2021, President Joe Biden suggested that Trump should no longer receive the standard intelligence briefings given to former presidents, calling Trump “erratic.”
Trump also was accused of mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate — a case now stalled in the courts that prosecutors are seeking to wind down following the election.
Trump's win gives him a mandate to carry out his vision for national security and intelligence, said Elbridge Colby, who served as a deputy assistant secretary of defense in the first Trump administration.
Colby said wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, along with China's growing rivalry, show Trump doesn't have time to be delicate with the nation's national security and intelligence agencies, likening them to the Titanic heading toward an iceberg.
“If you turn the Titanic 90 degrees, people are going to fall out of their bunks, chandeliers and beautiful plates are going to get broken," Colby said Sunday on Tucker Carlson's internet show. “But that's where we are. ... President Trump ran against the system.”