When the White House fired Julia Curlee from her senior intelligence position in March 2025, her boss had an odd request: please still show up to work on Monday, but be “discreet”.
asserted
boss → fire → Monday
The longtime CIA analyst had served in Donald Trump’s first term, briefing Vice-President Mike Pence; worked for Joe Biden as a national security director; and stayed on for Trump’s return.
asserted
analyst → serve → return
She had known her days might be numbered as the incoming White House was ousting national security staffers en masse.
uncertain
House → know → masse
Curlee is also transgender, which made her particularly vulnerable as the new administration made anti-trans policies a top priority.
asserted
policies → make → ?
But she didn’t understand her boss’s message until she opened her phone and saw the X post:
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she → understand → post
“SCOOP: A transgender, Biden holdover who hates President Trump is still working in the [National Security Council] intel office,” wrote Laura Loomer, the far-right social media influencer known to have Trump’s ear.
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Loomer → hat → ear
“If you are aware of this person and have their name, please send it to me and I will post their identity.”
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I → have → identity
Curlee was serving as a director for intelligence programs, leading Situation Room sessions, and her identity as a trans woman was well known.
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identity → serve → woman
But now that she had been targeted online, the White House decided to remove her, though not before she returned to work and – quietly – finished vital tasks.
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she → target → tasks
“It was absolutely not a problem for this administration to rely on and ask a trans woman who they knew was trans to continue serving them in a capacity of great sensitivity at the highest levels, including briefing this president, as long as it was secret,” she said in a recent interview.
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she → rely → interview
Curlee came forward in an Atlantic essay last month and is now sounding the alarm about the national security consequences of Trump’s extraordinary purging of intelligence experts.
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Curlee → come → experts
In a wide-ranging conversation with the Guardian, Curlee recounted the turmoil inside Trump’s White House, arguing the administration’s obsession with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and “the enemy within” had made the US government staggeringly incompetent – contributing to the debacle in Iran and causing damage that may take decades to repair.
uncertain
that → range → decades
“Sometimes you have to scream, ‘this is not normal.
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this → have → ?
This is not acceptable,’” she said.
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she → say → ?
‘Everyone’s fired except you’
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Everyone → fire → you
After serving in Iraq with the Defense Intelligence Agency, Curlee became a Central Intelligence Agency officer in 2007, fulfilling a childhood dream, as she recounted in her essay.
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she → serve → essay
She went on to complete multiple tours in the Middle East and South Asia, and in 2013 she fulfilled another longtime dream – coming out as trans.
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she → go → dream
Her transition caused little fanfare within the CIA, she wrote.
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she → cause → CIA
In 2017, she penned an anonymous piece about being a trans intelligence officer, encouraging other trans people to apply.
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she → pen → people
She soon after joined the first Trump administration, even as the president moved to ban trans people from the military.
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president → join → military
She briefed Trump on Air Force One and became Pence’s daily briefer, recalling a close, respectful working relationship with a man who had long opposed LGBTQ+ rights.
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who → brief → rights
Curlee was serving as a director for intelligence programs on Biden’s National Security Council (NSC) when Trump was re-elected in 2024.
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Trump → serve → 2024
Trump had aggressively mocked and demonized trans people during the campaign, and her superiors had advised her to step down, knowing how she could be personally targeted, she recalled.
uncertain
she → mock → her
But she stayed.
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she → stay → ?
Maintaining a senior intelligence role as Trump took office, Curlee and other remaining NSC staff helped onboard people and bring officials up to speed on highly secretive programs: “It was our charge to make sure the new government has everything they need to take the reins.”
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they → maintain → reins
She led Situation Room sessions, reminding incoming officials they should not bring cellphones into secure facilities where national secrets were discussed and that Signal was not an appropriate platform for sensitive discussions.
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Signal → lead → discussions
At the same time, she began leaving the White House to use a bathroom across the street, since she was banned from entering women’s restrooms under Trump’s day-one order.
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she → begin → order
On day three, chaos erupted.
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chaos → erupt → day
Curlee recalls leaving a briefing with a deputy national security adviser when her assistant intercepted her, telling her: “Everyone’s been fired except for you and me.”
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Everyone → recall → you
The administration had sidelined 160 NSC staffers, telling them not to return to the White House.
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administration → sideline → House
The staffers were career public servants who were considered non-partisan policy experts, on loan to the White House from the CIA, state department and other agencies.
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who → consider → CIA
“It was a dumpster fire – I think that’s the technical term,” she recalled, saying the administration had not considered extremely basic questions of how it would absorb the losses.
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it → think → losses
People needing computer logins or access to secure rooms had no technical staff to help.
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People → need → staff
Officials gave her assignments she struggled to fulfill without staff, she said.
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she → give → staff
There was no process to determine which officials even had clearance to receive the presidential daily brief, the most senior-level intelligence product, she said.
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she → be → brief
At times, she had to withhold information to ensure she wasn’t committing a felony by sharing it with an unauthorized person.
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she → have → person
“People who are supposed to be running policy, overseeing critical national programs, are unable to get access to information,” she said.
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she → suppose → information
“It would not have been impossible to imagine that a foreign adversary of the United States would see that as a window of opportunity to do something.
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adversary → imagine → something
And they would have found a government crippled at the senior most level by its own decisions.”
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they → find → decisions
It soon fell to Curlee to plead with some of the ousted NSC officers to return: “I’m saying, do it for me.
asserted
I → fall → me
…and 50 more, not listed.
The Aporia
