NEXT IN LINE — A recent White House order to codify succession plans atop the Office of the National Cyber Director is raising hackles in Trump world, with allies of the president-elect alleging it’s a bid to undermine his agenda — and ONCD supporters countering it’s little more than bureaucratic housecleaning. What happened: Late Friday, the Biden administration unveiled a flurry of executive orders that revised or — as in the ONCD’s case — created rules surrounding the “order of succession” at key offices and federal agencies. For the ONCD, the little-noticed White House edict stipulated the six office positions that are in line to act as temporary cyber czar “during any period in which the director has died, resigned, or otherwise become unable to perform the functions and duties of the office.” What the critics are saying: In an interview, Ezra Cohen, an outspoken Trump ally who held multiple national security roles in his first administration, said the order would undercut the Trump administration’s ability to quickly redirect the ONCD to its agenda. Though it’s technically true that Trump can scrap the EO whenever he wants, or install a new deputy of his choosing, Cohen said it can take time to tee up the necessary paperwork or command the president’s attention during a busy changeover. He also questioned why the White House would unveil it so late in the administration. The Biden administration’s real purpose is “to make the people it wants to stay on, stay on longer,” Cohen alleged, echoing a series of tweets he issued Friday. — Mountain out of a molehill? The Office of the National Cyber Director did not reply to a request for comment. But one of the drivers of the legislation to stand up the office, Mark Montgomery, said the EO has been in the works for six months and is not about Trump. Montgomery pointed out that all but one of the positions in the ONCD’s new line of succession are held by Biden appointees, who are all but sure to resign. He said that means the order is really about clarifying that the one outlier — Deborah Grays, a 30-year Army veteran, who is now the assistant national cyber director for resource management and administration — will helm the office come Jan. 20. Grays’ position is technically 5th in the EO’s succession lineup. The EO, the office’s first such succession plan, “won’t do anything to constrict the Trump administration,” argued Montgomery. — The other sore spot: Another former senior Trump official, Joshua Steinman, commented approvingly on Cohen’s post on X, and on Sunday unfurled his own broadside — this time directed at the Trump end of the transition. In it, the former senior NSC official lashed out at the transition team for allegedly telling some staffers on Biden’s NSC they can remain. He also warned that more senior NSC staff — including the White House’s current top cyber official, Anne Neuberger — are “angling” to stay. Steinman, who did not reply to a request for comment, said allowing many holdovers would have a “cascading and catastrophic effect” detrimental to Trump’s agenda. Spokespeople for the Biden NSC declined to comment on Steinman’s claims, and MC could not independently verify their veracity. — Tip of the iceberg or out on an island: Asked both about Cohen and Steinman’s comments, Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump transition, offered MC a cryptic response that could cut in different directions: “No one on President Trump’s NSC staff will be anything but supportive of the President’s agenda,” he wrote. Still, it’s clear the allegations are resonating among the Trump base. Cohen made an appearance on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” this weekend (though the interview focused largely on new succession directives for other parts of the administration), while Steinman’s post racked up more than 2 million views as of Sunday evening.
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