U.S. President Donald Trump with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, D.C., March 6, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
After Donald Trump returned to the White House on January 20, 2025, his administration — with the help of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), then led by Elon Musk — carried out a program of aggressive downsizing at federal government agencies. Trump insisted that his goal was to attack "waste, fraud and abuse." But critics, at the time, argued that the mass layoffs were depriving those agencies of valuable expertise.
Now, with the United States at war with Iran, the Trump Administration/DOGE cuts are drawing new criticism for, according to CNN, making the U.S. unprepared from a national security standpoint.
In an article published on March 10, five CNN reporters — Jeremy Herb, Annie Grayer , Jennifer Hansler, Sean Lyngaas and Gabe Cohen — explain, "President Donald Trump began his second term with a promise to cut 'billions and billions of dollars' in government spending, empowering Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to eliminate programs and fire workers it deemed wasteful. One year later, cuts to programs and personnel at federal agencies that had been declared unneeded mere months ago have hampered the U.S. government's abilities to prepare for domestic emergencies; monitor terror threats; guard against cyber-attacks; broadcast U.S. information into Iran; and quickly help U.S. citizens stranded abroad, current and former government officials told CNN."
One of the people who is sounding the alarm is Errol Weiss, chief security officer of the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Health-ISAC) — a group that highlights national security threats.
Weiss told CNN, "To truly secure the homeland, the government must bring its unique, actionable intelligence to the table. Otherwise, the U.S. critical infrastructures are dangerously exposed."
Andy Jabbour, CEO of the cybersecurity firm Gate 15, is worried as well.
Jabbour told CNN, "I mean, our nation's at war, the entire Middle East is being exposed to risk, including Americans and American business interests and critical dependencies, and we don't have a DHS (U.S. Department of Homeland Security) secretary or CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) director."
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-New York), the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, argues that Trump Administration/DOGE cuts to the U.S. State Department — now led by former Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) — left the United States in a bad position.
Meeks told CNN, "There was always going to be a cost to the shortsighted gutting of the State Department, and now, we're plainly seeing the consequences."
Conservative Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania) believes the Trump Administration/DOGE cuts used a "sledgehammer," telling CNN, "I think it went overboard. I thought it was too aggressive, too fast, too soon."
According to the CNN reporters, the Trump Administration/DOGE cuts "have also put a spotlight on domestic preparedness for potential retaliatory attacks from Iran or its proxies on the U.S. homeland."