Eight advisers on President Trump’s cybersecurity team have resigned, leaving behind a scathing message for him: He has “given insufficient attention to the growing threats” facing the United States, and his inaction has “threatened the security of the homeland.”
The advisers comprised more than one-quarter of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC). The 28-member panel, established in 2001 and drawn from the private sector, government and academia, advises the Department of Homeland Security on cybersecurity and infrastructure protection. They excoriated Trump on those fronts, saying he has failed to be “adequately attentive to the pressing national security matters” or “responsive to sound advice received from experts.”
Those departing experts cited the president’s response to the violence in Charlottesville, in which he defended white supremacists, his withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change and his inaction on safeguarding the U.S. election system after the Russian attacks on the 2016 election.
“When asked about the horrific violence in Charlottesville, you failed to denounce the intolerance and violence of hate groups, instead offering false equivalences and attacking the motives of the CEOs who had resigned from their advisory roles in protest,” the experts said.
“The moral infrastructure of our nation is the foundation on which our physical infrastructure is built,” they added.
The advisers stated that Trump had “given insufficient attention to the growing threats to the cybersecurity of the critical systems upon which all Americans depend, including those impacting the systems supporting our democratic election process.”
Those resigning include former U.S. chief data scientist DJ Patil, Office of Science and Technology Policy chief of staff Cristin Dorgelo, and Christy Goldfuss, managing director of the Environmental Quality Council.
The resignations follow the disbandment of the Manufacturing Council and the Strategic and Policy Forum, after members began dropping out following the president’s pro-white-nationalist remarks about Charlottesville.
The White House has not commented, but NIAC is expected to continue.
