FPI / January 14, 2026
By Richard Fisher
John Ratcliffe’s contribution to restoring the CIA’s reputation in the Trump era can’t be understated. The agency, once described by President Donald Trump as the “disgraceful’ employer of “sick people” who spread fake news, is back in favor with the White House under an unlikely spymaster.
As Director of National Intelligence (DNI) during Trump’s first term, former Texas Congressman Ratcliffe was one of Trump’s few key allies in a U.S. capital still largely beholden to the Deep State.
Ratcliffe’s rare willingness to confront powerful internal forces in the U.S. Intelligence Community was revealed in the dark final days of Trump’s first term.
As Democrats were calling for Trump’s impeachment following the events of Jan. 6, 2021, Ratcliffe authored a letter transmitted to Congress which assessed that China had interfered in the 2020 election.
In the Jan. 7, 2021 letter, Ratcliffe alleged that intelligence about China’s election interference was suppressed by management at the CIA, which pressured analysts to withdraw their support for the view.
Citing a report by the Intelligence Community’s analytic ombudsman Barry Zulauf, Ratcliffe said that some analysts were reluctant to describe China’s actions as election interference because the analysts disagreed with the policies of Trump.
Then-CIA Director Gina Haspel, who had an increasingly strained relationship with Trump during the final year of his first administration, announced she was leaving the agency. “It has been the greatest honor of my life to lead this remarkable organization,” Haspel wrote in a statement shared by the CIA on Twitter.
Haspel did not articulate the reason for her departure, which came on Jan. 19, 2021, the last full day of Trump’s first term.
In his first term Trump railed against the intelligence services and ignored his detailed CIA briefings, preferring to trust his own instincts.
Ratcliffe has made the CIA less risk-averse and more willing to conduct covert action when ordered by the president, going, as he said, to “places no one else can go and doing things no one else can do.”
That approach became evident when Trump ordered the operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro on Jan. 3, 2026.
As a distraction, the CIA team carried out an armed drone attack on a port facility in Venezuela supposedly used by drug traffickers. The real mission lay in the hands of undercover spies whose role was to build a “pattern of life” picture of Maduro’s comings and goings.
According to a report by The New York Times, the agents were “fed images transmitted to their laptops from a US Air Force spy drone operating from 50,000 feet. Particular attention was given to where Maduro was bedding down for the night because the plan was for special forces to capture him in his pajamas. A spy in the camp, recruited by the CIA, provided invaluable confirmation of Maduro’s sleeping arrangements.”
Full Report . . . . Current Edition . . . . Subscription Information
Unlikely spymaster restores CIA’s lost luster; Cited China’s 2020 election interference added by Editor Two on
View all posts by Editor Two →