CIA reportedly offers buyouts to entire workforce in latest Trump-era purge
GuardianJAN 23
Report: CIA Offers Buyouts to Entire Staff
Above: CIA Director John Ratcliffe during a Senate Intelligence confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on Jan. 15, 2025. Image copyright: Andrew Harnik/Staff/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The Spin
Pro-Trump narrative
This move is an effort to make the CIA leaner amid suggestions that it has strayed from its core competencies by hiring an abundance of analysts. It will also reshape the agency to focus on Trump's priorities of countering China and bringing down the drug cartels while giving those who oppose Trump's agenda the option to leave voluntarily.
Anti-Trump narrative
Though everyone expected some retribution from the second Trump presidency, everyone is shocked by the extent of his revenge. While he started off by punishing public officials he perceived as disloyal, he is now gutting whole swaths of government, with the brunt of his actions being felt by anonymous government employees who didn't see this coming.