Yet another top Trump administration officials may soon be out. According to Axios, the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, is all but gone.
“Trump hasn’t told our sources when he plans to make a move, but they say his discussions on the topic have been occurring for months — often unprompted — and the president has mentioned potential replacements since at least February. A source who spoke to Trump about Coats a week ago said the president gave them the impression that the move would happen “sooner rather than later.”
Trump has long favored dumping Coats after the director criticized the president’s relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin. And, when he told a Senate panel that North Korea was unlikely to give up its nuclear arsenal.
But Trump doesn’t just want to get rid of Coats, he wants to eliminate the position, calling it an “unnecessary bureaucratic layer.”
According to Axios, “[Trump] has been told that eliminating the ODNI is not politically possible, but still would like to “downsize” the office, the source said. “
Coats is a former Republican Senator from Indiana.
