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It’s a really bad time to be an expert in Washington
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The Eisenhower Executive Office Building where many of the dismissed members of the National Security Council worked.
PHOTO: HAIYUN JIANG/NYTIMES
David E. Sanger
The most dangerous occupation in Washington these days is being an expert.
Across West Executive Avenue from the White House, the offices that once buzzed with specialists at the National Security Council are now half vacant. Their dismissal reflects an administration not especially interested in the policy options developed by the specialists – many drawn from the State Department or the CIA – who stayed deep into the night pressure-testing alternatives to immediate and long-simmering crises.
