Ratcliffe served as director of national intelligence for the final months of Trump’s first term, leading the U.S. government’s spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic.

Inside the US intelligence community, a deep wariness about a second Trump administration has set in, stoked by memories of the antagonistic relationship the nation’s spy agencies had with Donald Trump the last time he was president.

John Ratcliffe, the former Texas congressman and director of national intelligence in Trump’s first term, is in line to head the premier all-source spy agency.