President Donald Trump privately queried cabinet members about replacing the Director of National Intelligence, expressing frustration that the DNI had protected former deputy Joe Kent. [1]
During the second-term transition, Kiriakou said, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy had not yet been given security clearances — a fact he inferred from Trump’s own delayed first President’s Daily Brief — which he says was holding up DOGE’s access to CIA information pending clearance and a warning from the incoming CIA director designate, John Ratcliffe, to keep quiet about classified programs.[2]