Nicolai Haugsted
1. CIA veteran sounds alarm over Trump’s security strategy as new terror plots emerge abroad.
America spent the years after September 11 building a sprawling security machine designed to spot terrorist threats before they reached US soil. Twenty-five years later, a former CIA officer fears some of that machinery is being pointed elsewhere at precisely the wrong moment.
Marc Polymeropoulos, who spent 26 years at the CIA, is warning that personnel and intelligence resources traditionally devoted to counterterrorism have been pulled toward other Trump administration priorities, including immigration enforcement and security operations closer to the US border.
His concern comes as authorities investigate fresh suspected plots overseas, including an attempted hijacking involving a flight bound for Tel Aviv and a suspected operation targeting a British military base used by American forces.
“I do wonder, you know, are we safe?” Polymeropoulos said during an appearance on The Bulwark. “And I think Americans should worry.”
FBI agents are good but Polymeropoulos questions their orders
Polymeropoulos did not direct his criticism at the agents responsible for counterterrorism work.
Quite the opposite.
He described rank-and-file FBI counterterrorism personnel as “very good,” while arguing that priorities imposed from above are pulling resources toward other missions.
“You have a leadership which is more worried about taking these FBI agents and chasing migrants at Home Depot, doing immigration arrests,” Polymeropoulos said.
His broader argument is straightforward: government agencies do not have an unlimited supply of investigators, surveillance platforms or intelligence specialists. Moving those resources from one mission inevitably leaves fewer available somewhere else.
Official FBI statements confirm that immigration enforcement has become a significant part of its workload under Trump. The bureau said last year that its Joint Terrorism Task Forces were supporting immigration enforcement alongside the Department of Homeland Security, while reporting thousands of immigration-related arrests.
Drones and intelligence assets are part of his concern
Personnel represent only one part of Polymeropoulos’ warning.
He also pointed toward ISR — intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — including drones and other systems used to monitor areas where extremist organizations can operate with limited government interference.
“The U.S. government has finite resources, and if we’re pulling things such as ISR, that’s drones, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, out of places like Africa where there’s ungoverned spaces, if you’re pushing them down towards Mexico and Central America, if you’re taking personnel off of the CT mission, that’s going to make us less safe,” he said.
Trump’s counterterrorism strategy takes a different view of where American resources should be concentrated.
The administration has designated major cartels and transnational gangs as foreign terrorist organizations and argues that protecting Americans requires greater attention to threats closer to home. Its 2026 counterterrorism strategy also calls for allies overseas to shoulder more of the burden traditionally carried by Washington.
Trump has given the FBI a different set of priorities
Immigration enforcement and transnational criminal organizations have occupied a prominent place in Trump’s second-term security agenda.
FBI leadership has publicly defended that shift. Bureau officials say their counter-cartel operations and immigration work are part of a broader national security mission rather than distractions from it.
Official FBI testimony has highlighted threats from international terrorism alongside cartels, gangs, fentanyl trafficking and domestic terrorism. Joint Terrorism Task Forces remain active across all 55 FBI field offices.
Polymeropoulos nevertheless argues that labels cannot solve the basic problem of limited resources.
“Money and people matter,” he said.
“My old friends who used to run counterterrorism, who are still in the intelligence community, are not working that issue anymore, and that actually gives me a lot of pause.”
The shadow of 9/11 hangs over the warning
Polymeropoulos also reached back to the period before September 11, 2001, when explaining why he believes complacency can carry a heavy price.
“Terrorism isn’t a problem until it is,” he said.
His comparison centered on the failure to fully appreciate warning signs before the 9/11 attacks rather than a claim that another attack of similar scale is imminent.
Concerns over the direction of America’s post-9/11 security infrastructure are not limited to Polymeropoulos. Former intelligence officials and national security specialists have questioned whether resources originally built around international terrorism are increasingly being redirected toward immigration, cartels and domestic targets.
