President Trump is taking dramatic steps in seeking to place his stamp on the federal bureaucracy.
When the career staff of the National Security Council popped onto a video call at 11:30 on Wednesday morning, a sense of dread had already settled in.
They knew exactly what President Trump thought of the council: that it was the core of the deep state, whose employees, almost all drawn from the State and Defense Departments or other agencies, had turned against him in his first term.
So it was no surprise when the word dropped. In a terse meeting that lasted just minutes — no questions, please — they were told to pack up and go home. Stay off your email and await further instructions, they were told, and some of you will be invited to apply for your old positions.
By a few minutes after noon, the National Security Council workers, who deal with crises around the world, were drifting out of their offices on a lunch break from which many would not return.
Even so, these may be the lucky ones: No one was fired. Many will simply return to their old agencies and hunt for jobs.
It was an early but dramatic step toward Mr. Trump’s ambitious goal of placing his stamp firmly on the federal bureaucracy. Mr. Trump and his team have planned for months to begin rooting out workers of unknown loyalty — or worse — and replace them with political allies committed to his agenda.