President Donald Trump made some of the most consequential foreign policy decisions of his presidency with a skeletal National Security Council of fewer than 50 policy experts, according to multiple sources familiar with the office.
As the White House coordinated across agencies and with foreign counterparts ahead of its decision to strike Iran, it was relying on newly appointed experts to advise on critical crises, these sources said — including Wayne Wall, the newly appointed senior director of Middle East policy, who was in his role for just days before the U.S. military struck three nuclear sites in Iran, according to a person close to the NSC.
The agency has begun to restaff in some areas, as Bloomberg first reported and NOTUS confirmed, focusing first on Asia experts. A White House official said the NSC has been consistently restaffing since cuts were made at the office. But the lack of staff up to this point has raised major questions about how extensively the president has been briefed.