The leaders of the specific transition teams, generally become administration officials within those agencies. Therefore, it is worth paying close attention to who is assigned to lead the silo changeover in the transition process.
Remember Howard Lutnick is in charge of personnel, while Linda McMahon is overseeing policy.
♦ The State Department
Brian Hook, former State Department policy planner and special envoy for Iran, has been tapped to lead the State Department transition team.
♦ The Pentagon
Robert Wilkie, former Veterans Affairs secretary in the first Trump administration, is leading the Defense Department’s transition team.
♦ The White House National Security Council
Joel Rayburn is expected to play a role in Trump’s NSC transition team, several people familiar with internal campaign and transition deliberations said. Rayburn was a Trump appointee for Middle East policy in the State Department and an adviser to Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) — who is himself a leading contender to be Trump’s secretary of state.
Michael Anton is also expected to play a role, several people said. Anton was a former National Security Council spokesperson under Trump. (The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on this or other positions.)
♦ The intelligence community
Trump’s former director for national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, is involved in transition planning for national security policy. (POLITICO first reported his name and others on this list last week.) Cliff Sims, who served as a deputy director of national intelligence in the first Trump administration, is also playing a leading role in national security and intelligence transition matters, according to the people familiar with internal campaign and transition matters.
♦ Global trade issues
Trump’s former trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, and Lighthizer’s former chief of staff, Jamieson Greer, are playing a leading role in economic and international trade transition policy.
♦ Cybersecurity
Joshua Steinman, a former Trump NSC official, is a leading contender for the NSC’s top cyber policy post. Others who could be involved in the transition’s cybersecurity team and take up top administration posts include Sean Plankey, a former NSC and Energy Department official, and Karen Evans, a former Trump Homeland Security Department official. (Source)
If Ratcliffe is in charge of transition planning for national security planning, then the odds are that John Ratcliffe is going to be President Trump’s National Security Advisor. He was my second choice, behind Nunes.
Ratcliffe is essentially DC safe. No substantive concern for the Intelligence Community apparatus. However, he could be a stealth choice, a wolverine in comfortable clothing, depending on his intent and disposition to confront and dismantle the adversarial IC system who will try to block his boss. Having served as ODNI, Ratcliffe should know the labyrinth pretty well.
More importantly, Ratcliffe doesn’t appear to have problematic attack vectors.
With Ratcliffe in mind (if accurate), the Director of the Office of National Intelligence (ODNI) would be the next position to watch closely in the overall intelligence system dynamic. Ratcliffe would be influencing that transition discussion.
Many people still don’t understand the DC silo system. Here’s a little elevator encapsulation clarity:
The leaders of the House and Senate intel committees, together with the leaders of the House and Senate are given the same level of intelligence briefing information as the President in the White House.
Read that again slowly.
The White House, the Senate and the House, are all kept on the same page, the same level of knowledge, by the Intelligence Community.
The WH, Senate and House are all kept in alignment (think control) by the Intelligence Community.
All the DC silos operate from the same information inputs.
See the problem?
95% of the opinion you are reading about presidential positions, qualifications and expectations are based on people who hold pretenses, intentionally or, in many cases, accidentally, because they just don’t know better. Some people think DC corruption is really, really bad. Trust me, it’s worse than that.
My thoughts on staffing, roles and responsibilities are from a pragmatic place of what can reasonably be expected to be achieved. CTH has never joined this nonsensical “trusty-planner” mindset. There is no plan. There never was a plan. There is one guy, Donald Trump, trying to enact policies to the benefit of the American people. Every democrat and every republican want him to fail.
The NSA position is critical. The Intelligence Community will lie to President Trump.
The Nat Sec Advisor intercepts the lies, evaluates the issue to find the small granules of truth; then presents truthful options to President Trump. The Nat Sec advisor must know the silo system like the back of his hand. He must know every detail about how it operates, and he must be willing to fight against the AG, DoS, FBI and CIA.
The NatSec Advisor must be strategic, smart and have EXCEPTIONAL judgement. The NatSec Advisor needs as few attack vectors as possible. If the NSA is vulnerable, he’s useless.
