Watching the watchers. Photo: Albin Lohr-Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Donald Trump has spent much of the past month assailing America’s intelligence agencies on Twitter. But now, he’s plotting to hit them where it hurts — right in their budgets.



The Wall Street Journal reports that the president-elect is working with his top advisers on a plan to “restructure and pare back” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which they believe has become “bloated and politicized.”

Trump’s team is also, reportedly, drafting a similar plan for the CIA – one that would cut staffing at the agency’s Virginia headquarters and send more agents out into the field.

“The view from the Trump team is the intelligence world [is] becoming completely politicized,” an individual close to Trump’s transition operation told the Journal. “They all need to be slimmed down. The focus will be on restructuring the agencies and how they interact.”

Ever since the CIA leaked its assessment that Russia intervened in America’s election in the hopes of aiding Trump’s candidacy, the president-elect has taken to publicly denigrating U.S. intelligence agencies on a regular basis.



The "Intelligence" briefing on so-called "Russian hacking" was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017

Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency until he was pushed out by James Clapper – the director of the intelligence agency that he and Trump are now planning to pare back.



But, surely, it is the intelligence agencies — and only the intelligence agencies — who are politicizing national-security decisions.

