Ratcliffe says Trump wants 'politics out of the intelligence community'
Jan 26, 2025
John Ratcliffe, the new Central Intelligence Agency director, said President Trump wants to keep politics “out of the intelligence community.”
Ratcliffe joined Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” where he spoke about the future of the agency.
“What President Trump wants is, he says, ‘Lead with integrity and get the politics out of the intelligence community,’” Ratcliffe said.
His remarks come just days after the Senate overwhelmingly voted to confirm him to lead the CIA. He was the second member of Trump’s national security team to be confirmed.
During his confirmation hearing, Ratcliffe told Democrats that he would keep the agency apolitical and he didn’t have plans to fire any employees.
Ratcliffe highlighted the release of a report, started under the Biden administration, that found the COVID-19 virus originated in a lab in China.
“Part of what we have to do is, we have to restore Americans’ trust in our own institutions, like the intelligence community and law enforcement, and that includes the CIA,” he said.