CIA reportedly offers buyouts to entire workforce in latest Trump-era purge
Guardian20 hrs
Report: CIA Offers Buyouts to Entire Staff
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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 Facts
The Wall Street Journal reported that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) offered buyouts to its workforce on Tuesday.
As part of the move — confirmed by CNN and Reuters — staff will receive eight months of salary and benefits if they resign.
A CIA spokesperson said the decision had been taken "to ensure the CIA workforce is responsive to the administration's national security priorities" under the agency's new director, John Ratcliffe.
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.
