Trump and Biden national and homeland security staff will meet Wednesday for threat exercises
By Sean Lyngaas, Priscilla Alvarez and Kevin Liptak, CNN
(CNN) — Some of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks and top national security staff are expected to meet Wednesday with President Joe Biden’s National Security Council in the White House to walk through how the US government responds to a range of homeland security threats and scenarios, four sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Among the expected attendees at the meeting in the White House Situation Room, one of the sources said, are Trump’s picks for secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security and State: Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem and Marco Rubio. A second source confirmed that Hegseth is expected to attend.
The teams will meet as the US government faces multiple challenges at home and abroad that demand the National Security Council’s attention, including deadly fires in Los Angeles and efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. There are also fresh concerns in the US over terrorism after a man rammed his truck into New Year’s revelers in New Orleans earlier this month, killing 14 people and injuring more.
Participants in Wednesday’s meeting in the Situation Room are expected to discuss US policy options for responding to real-world scenarios based on the current threat environment, one of the sources said.
CNN has reached out to the Trump transition team for comment.
The National Security Council “is convening a homeland security Principals’ table top exercise, which will be chaired by (homeland security adviser) Liz Sherwood-Randall, to carry out the president’s directive to have a professional transition to ensure the security of the homeland,” an NSC spokesperson told CNN.
Such meetings between incoming and outgoing administrations are typical as a new slate of US officials gets up to speed on portfolios from counterterrorism to transnational crime and public health. When the Obama administration handed off to Trump’s team in late 2016 and 2017, officials participated in scenarios about an outbreak of contagious disease – an example that Obama officials later pointed to when the Covid outbreak began during Trump’s first administration.
Hegseth faced a contentious confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. The confirmation hearings for Noem and Rubio are slated for later this week. The Senate has yet to vote on any of Trump’s Cabinet picks.
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, said Tuesday that he and Mike Waltz, Trump’s choice for national security adviser, “have spent a considerable amount of time together” to make sure that the next administration is briefed on immediate issues and “longer term trends” impacting national security.
Appearing alongside Sullivan at a US Institute for Peace event on Tuesday, Waltz said the US southern border will be among the top national security challenges of the first six months of Trump’s second administration.
Waltz also spoke highly of the pair’s coordination and the need for a smooth transition. “At the end of the day,” he said, “we’re all Americans, and we’re sending a message that to our adversaries, don’t you dare try to take advantage of this time.”
The National Security Council is led by the national security adviser and consists of both dedicated staff and those detailed from various federal agencies. Waltz has promised to replace current NSC staff wholesale with personnel who are deemed loyal to Trump and his agenda.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.
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