Julia Curlee, a veteran intelligence officer whose career spanned from the George W. Bush years through the Biden administration, found herself in a precarious position when Donald Trump returned to the White House in early 2025. Serving as a director for intelligence programs on the National Security Council (NSC), Curlee had become a known presence within the building as a trans woman. However, as the new administration began its systematic purge of federal staff under the banner of eliminating “the enemy within,” her tenure quickly became untenable.
The pressure intensified in March 2025 when far-right influencer Laura Loomer, who is widely known to have the president’s ear, posted a message online targeting Curlee directly. Loomer referred to her as a “transgender, Biden holdover who hates President Trump” and asked her followers to help identify the official. Following this online exposure, Curlee was formally fired from her NSC role. In an unusual turn, her superior requested that she remain discreet and continue coming into work through the following Monday to finalize her departure tasks.
Curlee, who joined the CIA in 2007 after serving in Iraq with the Defense Intelligence Agency, described a environment of profound dysfunction following the change in leadership. In the opening days of the new administration, she witnessed the dismissal of 160 career public servants and policy experts who were on loan to the NSC. She recalled the scene as a “dumpster fire,” noting that the incoming leadership had failed to account for the loss of institutional knowledge or the practical realities of maintaining sensitive operations. Some of these ousted officials were even asked by Curlee to return to help manage the transition, as they were the only ones capable of bridging the critical knowledge gap.
Throughout this period, Curlee maintained her responsibilities, including leading Situation Room briefings. During these meetings, she strictly enforced security protocols, such as reminding incoming officials to leave cellphones in secure storage and warning against the use of unauthorized platforms like Signal for classified discussions. Despite the administration’s public hostility toward transgender individuals, senior officials frequently pulled her aside to describe her as “indispensable,” even as they enforced policies that effectively barred her from women’s restrooms and stripped her of insurance coverage for hormone replacement therapy.
The impact of the administration’s war on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) reached beyond internal morale, creating a chilling effect across the agency. Curlee argued that the mass removal of experienced personnel—including women and people of color—degraded the government’s ability to function. “People who are supposed to be running policy, overseeing critical national programs, are unable to get access to information,” she observed, noting that such institutional instability created national security vulnerabilities that foreign adversaries could exploit.
Curlee’s transition in 2013 had previously seen little controversy within the CIA, and she had even written anonymously in 2017 to encourage other trans individuals to pursue intelligence careers. However, the atmosphere under the current administration was markedly different. Beyond the workplace restrictions, she faced significant personal hurdles, such as the government’s refusal to issue anything but a “male” passport, which made international assignments impossible.
Reflecting on her decision to speak out, Curlee stated that she felt a moral obligation to expose the reality of the administration’s internal failures. She expressed a desire to show that a transgender person can lead a successful life while serving at the highest levels of government, directly contradicting the narratives pushed by the White House. “The only thing I can do to help fight this caricature is to tell my story,” she stated, characterizing the administration’s focus on identity as a distraction from broader policy failures.
In response to these allegations, the White House maintained that Curlee was a “Biden-era appointee” whose tenure was always intended to conclude by mid-2025. Spokesperson Anna Kelly stated that the president reserves the right to remove any official in the executive branch at his discretion. Following her departure from the NSC, Curlee was reassigned to a role back at the CIA. The report also notes that briefing Vice-President Mike Pence; worked for Joe Biden as a national security director; and stayed on for Trump’s return, the longtime CIA analyst had served in Donald Trump ’s first term. The report also notes that but she didn’t understand her boss’s message until she opened her phone and saw the X post. The report also notes that 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. The report also notes that in a wide-ranging conversation with, 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. The report also notes that “Sometimes you have to scream, ‘this is not normal. The report also notes that and in 2013 she fulfilled another longtime dream – coming out as trans, she went on to complete multiple tours in the Middle East and South Asia. The report also notes that in 2017, she penned an anonymous piece about being a trans intelligence officer, encouraging other trans people to apply.
