DOGE-driven cuts could weaken administration’s ability to handle Iran conflict

The US military’s strikes in Iran over the weekend prompted a swift response from across the federal government to react to any fallout, but current and former officials say the administration’s DOGE-driven cuts to a host of agencies have made it harder to grapple with the conflict and prepare for potential retaliation.

The US military’s strikes in Iran over the weekend prompted a swift response from across the federal government to react to any fallout, but current and former officials say the administration’s DOGE-driven cuts to a host of agencies have made it harder to grapple with the conflict and prepare for potential retaliation. At the federal agencies that handle cybersecurity, hundreds of departing staffers have heightened concerns about US vulnerabilities to cyberattacks coming from Iran or its proxies. Staffing shortages at the Federal Emergency Management Agency have raised fears about domestic preparedness inside the agency. At the FBI, some agents who were shifted into assisting immigration enforcement efforts are returning to focus on the agency’s counterterrorism mission. At the State Department, career officials with decades of experience in the region have departed or been forced out of their roles. And journalists at the government-owned Voice of America say the administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency have impacted broadcasting the American narrative — depleting the government’s soft power — to Iranians following Saturday’s strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities. There is optimism that the US-brokered ceasefire between Iran and Israel in the aftermath of the US attack — and a mostly performative Iranian response launching missiles at a US airbase in Qatar — will lessen the risk of Iranian-linked retaliation inside the United States. But while Tehran’s ability to respond militarily to the US and Israeli strikes is limited, the regime’s abilities to react in other ways is more robust. “There is significant concern that Iran will try to engage in either cyber or kinetic, asymmetric tactics in response to this conflict,” said John Cohen, the former acting undersecretary for intelligence and analysis and counterterrorism coordinator at the Department of Homeland Security, who led the effort at DHS under the Obama administration to develop response plans to threats from Iran. The Iran strikes came after the first months of Trump’s second term saw the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency force deep staffing cuts across government, including resignations and layoffs of more than 100,000 federal workers and the attempted dismantling of several federal agencies, though many of the reductions are still being litigated in court.