Intel Chiefs Detail Top Threats – and Get a Grilling Over Signal Leak

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Drug traffic tops 2025 threat assessment – and IC warns of Russia dangers

National Security Agency Director General Timothy Haugh, FBI Director Kash Patel, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Jeffrey Kruse appear during a Senate Committee on Intelligence Hearing on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Posted: March 25th, 2025

By Tom Nagorski

Tom Nagorski is the Managing Editor for The Cipher Brief. He previously served as Global Editor for Grid and served as ABC News Managing Editor for International Coverage as well as Senior Broadcast Producer for World News Tonight.

SPECIAL REPORT – The U.S. Intelligence Community’s (IC) annual assessment of threats facing the U.S. puts narcotics trafficking at the top of the list – ahead of menaces involving China, Iran, Russia, Islamic terrorism and cyberattacks. It also paints a portrait of Russia that’s much darker than the image promoted by President Trump and his negotiators.

Leaders of the IC presented the Trump Administration’s first Annual Threat Assessment to Congress Tuesday, in a Senate hearing that was repeatedly diverted by the firestorm over the sharing of U.S. war plans with a journalist.

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