Ex-Trump adviser Flynn predicts all 17 US intel agencies won't be around by 2026, 'waste,' 'overlap'
By Charlotte Hazard
Published: November 12, 2024
"I don't believe nor do I agree that we should have all of these organizations still existing with the giant budgets that they have," Michael Flynn said.
Former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn predicted that not all 17 of the offices that make up the intelligence community will be present in two years.
"I can't imagine that two years from now we're going to continue to have the 17 Intel agencies," Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, said Monday on the "John Solomon Reports" podcast. "I just cannot see that if we're going to move this country forward in a way that needs to be moved forward where we're sort of that shining city on the hill."
There are 17 offices that make up the intelligence community, including the Central Intelligence Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Flynn argued there's been too much overlap and overspending of taxpayer dollars on them.
"There's so much waste in the intelligence community … and overlapping ineffective and inefficient communication systems," he said.
Flynn also said intelligence agencies such as the CIA have strayed from their mission of protecting the American people.
Over the past four years, many conservatives have raised concerns about the politicization of federal agencies and going after Americans for political beliefs.
Last year, Flynn sued the federal government for what he referred to as Washington's "wrongful and malicious" prosecution of him.
His complaint stemmed from the Department of Justice's prosecution of him over a 2017 interview with the FBI where he was accused of improperly communicating with Russia. He was eventually pardoned after the DOJ dismissed the charges against him.
"I don't believe nor do I agree that we should have all of these organizations still existing with the giant budgets that they have," he said. "We have to ask ourselves, 'what do we get out of these organizations? What do we get out of them?' Frankly, what we've gotten out of them is a lot of heartache."
He said that the agencies have brought nothing but wars and failures.
"Shining city on a hill" That is an overused poilitical phrase IMHO.
A shinny thing may not itself be luminous, but a thing that shines will be.