Key Takeaways
- The Trump administration plans to downsize the CIA by about 1,200 employees, affecting the US intelligence community.
- The staff reductions will be accomplished in part through reduced hiring and no outright firings are planned.
- Possible negative implications of the CIA downsizing include potential attempts by other countries to recruit the fired US national security workers.
Washington: The administration of US President Donald Trump plans to downsize the CIA by about 1,200 employees, which is roughly 5 percent of the intelligence agency’s workforce, The Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the plans.
The CIA workforce is believed to be around 22,000. 500 of the 1,200 positions to be cut represent workers who have already put in for early retirement.
The reductions will take place over several years and downsizing by about several thousand positions is also planned in other parts of the US intelligence community, including the National Security Agency (NSA); the Defense Intelligence Agency; the National Reconnaissance Office; and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which provides targeting data to US troops, The Washington Post said.
Sources told the newspaper that the staff reductions would be accomplished in part through reduced hiring and no outright firings were planned. The downsizing is not part of efforts by the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk.
“That does not seem that out of line,” one former official told The Washington Post.
Nonetheless, the newspaper suggested that possible negative implications of the downsizing include potential attempts by other countries, such as Russia and China, to recruit the fired US national security workers.
