Partnership for Public Service Statement on National Security and the 9/11 Anniversary

September 10, 2025

WASHINGTON – The nonpartisan, nonprofit Partnership for Public Service today released the following statement from President and CEO Max Stier on the health of the national security community on the eve of the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. 

“Our government’s primary responsibility is to keep us safe. Unfortunately, in just over seven months, the Trump administration has put our nation at serious risk of being unprepared for terrorist threats. 

“The primary conclusion of the commission charged with investigating the 9/11 attacks was that the government’s principal failure was its inability to ‘connect the dots’—to piece together information from many parts of the intelligence community to comprehend and then stop what ultimately happened. 

“In this administration, expert national security leaders have been sidelined or fired, and dissenting voices or those with information that runs counter to the president’s worldview have been silenced. All of this creates an environment hostile to the sharing and elevating of the kind of information necessary to uncover and stop threats against the nation. 

“Failing to connect the dots is a big problem but not having the dots to begin with is even worse.” 

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