DOGE-driven cuts could weaken administration's ability to handle Iran conflict

CNN

4 days ago

The US military's strikes in Iran over the weekend prompted a swift response from across the federal government to react to any fallout, but current and former officials say the administration's DOGE-driven cuts to a host of agencies have made it harder to grapple with the conflict and prepare for potential retaliation.
At the federal agencies that handle cybersecurity, hundreds of departing staffers have heightened concerns about US vulnerabilities to cyberattacks coming from Iran or its proxies. Staffing shortages at the Federal Emergency Management Agency have raised fears about domestic preparedness inside the agency.
At the FBI, some agents who were shifted into assisting immigration enforcement efforts are returning to focus on the agency's counterterrorism mission. At the State Department, career officials with decades of experience in the region have departed or been forced out of their roles. And journalists at the government-owned Voice of America say the administration's efforts to dismantle the agency have impacted broadcasting the American narrative — depleting the government's soft power — to Iranians following Saturday's strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities.
There is optimism that the US-brokered ceasefire between Iran and Israel in the aftermath of the US attack — and a mostly performative Iranian response launching missiles at a US airbase in Qatar — will lessen the risk of Iranian-linked retaliation inside the United States. But while Tehran's ability to respond militarily to the US and Israeli strikes is limited, the regime's abilities to react in other ways is more robust.
'There is significant concern that Iran will try to engage in either cyber or kinetic, asymmetric tactics in response to this conflict,' said John Cohen, the former acting undersecretary for intelligence and analysis and counterterrorism coordinator at the Department of Homeland Security, who led the effort at DHS under the Obama administration to develop response plans to threats from Iran.
The Iran strikes came after the first months of Trump's second term saw the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency force deep staffing cuts across government, including resignations and layoffs of more than 100,000 federal workers and the attempted dismantling of several federal agencies, though many of the reductions are still being litigated in court.
In addition to cuts, the Trump administration has also shifted priorities, focusing much of its domestic security thus far on securing the border. As part of its plan to make good on President Donald Trump's promise to enact the largest deportation effort in history, his administration over the last several months has moved significant resources toward immigration enforcement or removal operations.
Asked on NBC's 'Meet the Press' in the immediate aftermath of the US strikes on Sunday whether the administration was concerned about the threat of Iran or Iranian proxies carrying out an attack in the US, Vice President JD Vance pointed to the administration's border efforts.
'This is one of the reasons why border security is national security, is if you let a bunch of crazy people into your country, those crazy people can eventually take action,' Vance said. 'We're going to do everything that we can to make sure that doesn't happen and to keep Americans safe.'
Former security officials say hacking threats from Iran and its proxies are one of the more likely forms of retaliation, if history is any guide.
Since the start of the second Trump administration, hundreds of cybersecurity personnel across multiple federal agencies have left, or made plans to leave, the federal government. That includes people who were fired, took the 'deferred resignation' program or chose to leave for other reasons.
There is concern among current and former US officials that the upheaval has disrupted the regular pace of briefings and coordination between cyber officials and critical infrastructure firms.
The bulk of the DOGE-led cuts have been at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a part of DHS charged with protecting non-military networks from hacking.
'The government generally and CISA specifically has lost a lot of great cyber talent, and we're going to feel that,' Jeff Greene, who until January served as CISA's executive assistant director for cybersecurity, told CNN. 'These losses will impact our defensive capabilities somewhere. If we shift more people to work Iran, that's going to come from somewhere. And the more empty chairs, the less we can do.'
The Trump administration has pushed back on the notion that the workforce cuts have degraded cyber defenses.
'Some of these layoffs, reductions of forces are not intended to impact national security,' a senior White House official said in an interview in March. 'I think there's also been a lot of conflation of reductions in contracts [with the private sector] … with actual firing of government personnel.'
CISA did not respond to requests for comment when asked how many cyber personnel have left in the last four months.
CISA spokeswoman Marci McCarthy said in a statement: 'CISA is focused squarely on executing its statutory mission: serving as the national coordinator for securing and protecting the nation's critical infrastructure.'
Rep. Mike Simpson, an Idaho Republican, said he didn't think that the government reductions overall would be harmful to the government's Iran response.
'Anytime you go in and try to reduce the size of a government program, there's going to be kickback. It's not anybody's fault,' Simpson said. 'I don't think that hurts us. We can actually handle this stuff. We can actually walk and chew gum at the same time. But is it disrupting? Yeah. And it is disrupting to employees.'
The Trump administration's shift of hundreds of law enforcement agents to immigration enforcement potentially also complicates its response to threats from Iran, former officials say, even if some of those shifts have been reversed in recent days.
Officers from agencies including the ATF, FBI and US Marshals Service paused some of their existing work and focus on immigration.
'While they had every right to do that, those are the very same resources that would be necessary to address the various threats that could potentially emerge if the conflict with Iran continues to escalate,' Cohen said. 'For any administration that comes into office, the real world has a way of impacting your initial priorities.'
After the US strikes, the FBI told multiple agents with Iran knowledge, including cyber experts, to shift from immigration back to Iran.
Sources stressed there is currently no known specific and credible threat, but agents must be available to fully staff the bureau's counterterrorism mission due to global hostilities. The FBI said in a statement Tuesday that it is continuously assessing and realigning 'our resources to respond to the most pressing threats to our national security and to ensure the safety of the American people.'
In the immediate aftermath of the US airstrikes, a DHS bulletin obtained by CNN stated that Iran could try to 'target' US government officials if Iranian leaders believe 'the stability or survivability' of their regime is at risk.
Iran's intelligence services are capable of using hacking to surveil targets of assassination or kidnapping, current and former US officials have told CNN, and the FBI is unique among US intel and security agencies in its ability to counter that hybrid threat.
Ned Price, a former Biden and Obama State Department and National Security Council official, noted that one of Trump's first actions was to remove security protections from former officials who were under threat from Iran.
'If the concern is real — and I agree it should be that we face a heightened threat — they have taken away resources that directly contribute to seeking to counteract this threat,' Price said.
US agencies tasked with responding to incidents on domestic soil, conducting diplomacy and projecting soft power overseas are also dealing with personnel reductions.
Staffing cuts and internal turmoil at FEMA are fueling concerns about the agency's ability to respond if tensions with Iran trigger emergencies at home, several current and former agency officials told CNN.
In recent years, FEMA developed plans to address threats from foreign adversaries, particularly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But those efforts, the sources said, have stalled as key leaders and frontline staff have left the agency and resources have dwindled.
With the military focused on operations overseas, FEMA plays a key role in managing domestic crises — including terror-related and cybersecurity incidents — protecting the US population and ensuring the federal government remains operational. But the agency has faced months of upheaval, marked by a wave of departures, plummeting morale and mounting uncertainty about its future direction. As FEMA's pool of experienced personnel shrinks and resources become more limited, doubts are growing about its ability to fulfill its critical mission.
Staffing cuts at the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center — one of the nation's most vital emergency response facilities — are compounding these worries, sources told CNN.
The State Department, meanwhile, has no deputy assistant secretary for Iraq and Iran. There is no longer a confirmed US ambassador in Qatar or Jordan and no confirmed assistant secretary of state for the Middle East.
Former State Department officials say experts in diplomacy are essential when you get into the nitty gritty of complicated issues like an Iranian nuclear deal, something Trump still says he wants.
'A solid, verifiable, legally sound agreement is going to require experts in science, law, negotiation, nuclear policy, and international structures,' said Alexandra Bell, a former Biden administration deputy assistant secretary in State's Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence and Stability. 'If you want deals, if you want to find diplomatic solutions, you need diplomats and you need to not be terrorizing them.'
One congressional source said that most foreign democracy programming was cut under DOGE, but the administration is not answering questions about the status of a longstanding civil society program in the Middle East specifically that promotes democracy and the free flow of information into closed societies like Iran.
A senior State Department official responded to CNN's request for comment, saying that department officials from previous administrations had 'no credibility' on Iran.
At Voice of America, a government-funded news organization that's led America's efforts to broadcast information around the world for decades, most of the staff were put on leave in March after Trump signed an order to drastically shrink its parent, the US Agency for Global Media. There are now ongoing lawsuits to try to block the cuts.
Following Israel's military campaign in Iran, the USAGM temporarily brought back VOA Persian employees to broadcast in Farsi. But about half of those employees were then part of widespread layoffs at Voice of America announced on Friday, one day before the US military strikes in Iran, according to VOA journalists.
Kari Lake, a senior adviser for USAGM who is leading the effort to dismantle it, testified at a House hearing Tuesday that VOA successfully broadcast Trump's Saturday speech in Farsi.
'We are still broadcasting in Farsi,' she said. 'Sometimes a lean and mean and a smaller staff makes it easier to get things done.'
But VOA journalists told CNN that the attempts to broadcast Trump's speech that night were chaotic because of the layoffs, and there were delays in publishing it translated into Farsi online. The Farsi translation of Trump's speech on social media lost audio roughly a minute in.
'It was a disaster,' said one VOA journalist, who requested anonymity to speak candidly without retribution.
Patsy Widakuswara, VOA's White House bureau chief and a lead plaintiff in one of the VOA lawsuits, said that TV production that night for the Farsi broadcast was hampered by the lack of support and technical staff.
'Everything that's needed to support a good broadcast, they were not there,' she said. 'This is a lost opportunity, where we're not putting out the narrative that we would usually put out, which is factual, comprehensive, balanced.'
Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, told CNN that cutting of Farsi radio was 'short-sighted.'
'That would be one clear example that they shouldn't have done,' Bacon said.