President-elect Donald Trump has picked his former national intelligence director, John Ratcliffe, to be the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, selecting a fierce loyalist from his first administration to lead the nation’s intelligence apparatus.
Ratcliffe, 59, is expected to bring a heavy focus on countering national security threats and foreign adversaries such as China and Iran to the position. If confirmed by the Senate, he will lead an agency with which Trump had an often hostile relationship in his first term.
During his first White House term, the president-elect often launched attacks on social media against U.S. intelligence agencies while at times praising adversaries including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
That contentious relationship was largely driven by the agencies’ warnings that Russia meddled in the 2016 election in Trump’s favor. He accused the “deep state” of being “weaponized” against him and his allies. At a summit in Helsinki in 2018, he famously sided with Putin over U.S. agencies’ assessment of Moscow’s election interference.
Trump lauded Ratcliffe in a statement Tuesday, saying he “will be a fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans, while ensuring the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.”
Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence at the end of Trump’s first term, after serving as a Republican congressman from Texas, where he was first elected in 2014.
When first nominated by Trump to serve as national intelligence director, Ratcliffe came under scrutiny and withdrew his name from consideration amid accusations that he exaggerated his qualifications. Senate Republicans soured on Ratcliffe over questions about whether he misrepresented his role in prosecuting terrorism and immigration cases when he worked at the Justice Department.
However, Ratcliffe eventually won support for the nomination following his staunch defense of Trump during the former president’s first impeachment. That proceeding involved accusations Trump abused his powers by trying to coerce Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to open an investigation into Joe Biden before the 2020 election. Ratcliffe was confirmed by the Senate as national intelligence director in May 2020.
“The Trump administration will be inheriting an incalculably large and dangerous network of terrorist threats embedded within the 10 million people allowed to illegally enter the U.S. by border czar Kamala Harris,” Ratcliffe wrote on X in October, referring to Trump’s Democratic election rival.
Trump’s casual attitude in handling some of America’s closest-guarded secrets could also heighten concerns about his ability to protect the agency’s sources and methods. Early in his first tenure in the White House, Trump shared sensitive intelligence from Israel with visiting Russian officials and later was found to have kept highly classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club after he left office.
Gina Haspel, who led the CIA under Trump’s first term, reportedly threatened to resign in late 2020 when Trump sought to install Kash Patel, a close ally of his, as her deputy, according to Axios.
Ratcliffe currently leads the America First Policy Institute’s Center for American Security, along with other former aides from Trump’s first administration, Keith Kellogg and Fred Fleitz. Half a year after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the trio authored a report titled “Ending Putin’s Invasion” calling on the US to map out plans to convene peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.
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