President-elect Donald Trump likely won't name a replacement for the outgoing Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who announced his resignation Thursday.
Trump plans to abolish the cabinet-level office, The Intercept reports.
Moving forward with that plan would dismantle the organization that was created in response to the 9/11 attacks and fold parts of it into the 16 other agencies it loosely oversees, The Intercept reported.
The DNI had its critics from the get-go.
"There were few in the intelligence community at the time who thought that restructuring was a good idea," Gen. Michael Hayden wrote in a book, The Intercept reported. "I certainly did not."
Further, the reorganization would also preface other changes the Trump administration wants to make to intelligence agencies, namely the CIA, according to The Intercept.
"Assuming the DNI gets taken apart, they want to undo (Director John) Brennan's reorganization of the agency," The Intercept was told.
Brennan in 2015 merged analysts and spies, a move that was panned for weakening the CIA, The Intercept reported.
Trump on Friday named GOP Rep. Mike Pompeo to replace Brennan as CIA Director.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.