Scene of the crime

Slaughter on 17th Street: The White House National Security Council, which lost its director and deputy director over the Signalgate scandal and pressure from far right activist Laura Loomer, shed half its remaining 350 staff members in a mass eviction on Friday. “President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have orchestrated a vast restructuring of the National Security Council, reducing its size and transferring many of its powers to the State and Defense departments,” Axios first reported late Friday afternoon, shortly after “dozens” of employees in the Eisenhower Executive Offive Building (formerly the Old Executive Office Buillding) adjacent to the White House got notices they were put on administrative leave. “The staff sent home included both career officials who were detailed to the NSC and some political appointees,” The Washington Post reported. CNN reported employees were given 30 minutes to clean out their desks. Two new deputy national security advisers have been appointed, The Post said: Andy Baker, who has been national security adviser to Vice President JD Vance, and Robert Gabriel, a policy adviser to Trump.

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