By Some U.S. allies are considering scaling back the intelligence they share with Washington in response to the Trump administration’s conciliatory approach to Russia, five sources with direct knowledge of the discussions told NBC News.
The allies are weighing the move because of concerns about safeguarding foreign assets whose identities could inadvertently be revealed, said the sources, who included two foreign officials.
Every intelligence agency treats its commitments to foreign agents as sacrosanct, pledging to keep agents safe and shield their identities. Anything that jeopardized that obligation would violate that trust, former officials said, and that could lead some spy services to hold back on some information sharing with Washington.
The allies, including Israel, Saudi Arabia and members of the so-called Five Eyes spy alliance of English-speaking democracies, are examining how to possibly revise current protocols for sharing intelligence to take the Trump administration’s warming relations with Russia into account, the sources said.
“Those discussions are already happening,” said a source with direct knowledge of the discussions.
One Western official said the Trump administration has shaken how longtime allies view the United States and whether it can be relied upon.
“There are serious discussions going on about what information can be shared with the United States. The Five Eyes have always worked on the premise that we don’t spy on each other,” the Western official said. “I don’t think that’s reliable anymore.”
The official added, “That’s right now where we are, and I don’t see any way that changes.”
No decision or action has been taken, however, the sources said.
The review is part of a wider examination of the spectrum of relations with Washington among many U.S. allies, including diplomacy, trade and military cooperation, as well as intelligence matters, the sources said.
Though the extent of a U.S. policy change toward Russia remains unclear, allies are weighing the possible implications of what could be a historic shift, a Western official said.
Asked about allies’ possibly limiting what they share with the United States, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council said President Donald Trump is “clear-eyed” about America’s adversaries.
“The U.S. has unrivaled intelligence capabilities which is exactly why intelligence sharing initiatives such as the Five Eyes exist,” spokesman Brian Hughes said in an email.
“President Trump is clear-eyed on all threats our adversaries pose to our national security and he will work with any ally or partner who understands the dangerous world inherited after the disastrous Biden years,” he added. “On Biden’s watch, we had the war in Ukraine, the surrender in Afghanistan, and the slaughter of the innocents on October 7th.”
Administration officials and some Republican lawmakers have defended Trump’s handling of Russia as a tactic designed to bring Moscow to the negotiating table and clinch a peace deal that would end a destabilizing war in Europe. But distrust of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a veteran KGB officer, remains high among U.S. allies.
The British Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6’s headquarters at Vauxhall Cross in London.Anadolu Agency / Getty Images file
Publicly, longtime U.S. allies downplayed the issue. The United Kingdom, the most important U.S. intelligence partner, said it had no plans to reduce intelligence cooperation with the United States.
“The U.S. is the UK’s closest ally and we will continue to cooperate closely on defence, intelligence and security matters,” a British government spokesperson said in an email. “Any suggestion otherwise is totally untrue.”
The Canada Security Intelligence Service said in a statement that it has strong relationships with numerous U.S. agencies that are “long-standing and resilient.”
It added, “Canada deeply values its partnership with the United States, and we believe that it is in the strategic interest of both countries to continue our strong national security cooperation.”
Omer Dostri, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “Regarding Israel, the story is baseless. Israel is not considering such a measure.”
Officials from New Zealand, Australia and Saudi Arabia did not respond to requests for comment.
Some officials in allied countries, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters, played down the idea that Trump’s policies on Russia would disrupt information sharing that dates back decades. They noted that intelligence can be shared in ways that protect sources and methods.
The lobby of CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.Kevin Wolf / AP file
But some former U.S. intelligence officers say they are concerned that the Trump administration may opt to scale back intelligence collection aimed at Russia, as the U.S. may no longer see Russia as a top threat.
The administration, for example, has indicated it may place a higher priority on efforts to counter drug cartels from Mexico and other countries in the region. Already, the Defense Department has deployed more resources to the southern border, including a team of analysts. And the CIA has launched drone surveillance flights over Mexico as part of that effort.
Trump’s decision this week to pause intelligence assistance to Ukraine, along with military aid, has reinforced concerns among allies. The intelligence cooperation with Kyiv — which has developed since Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014 — has benefited both Washington and Kyiv, former officials say, with Ukraine providing valuable insights about Russia.
In weighing whether to dial back some intelligence sharing, the Five Eyes allies — the U.K., Australia, Canada and New Zealand — and other U.S. partners would have to take into account risks to their own national security if cooperation with Washington were reduced.
But recent moves by the Trump administration regarding cybersecurity have also fueled concerns about the administration’s engagement with Moscow.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month ordered U.S. Cyber Command to halt offensive cyber operations and information operations against Russia, NBC News has reported. It is unclear how long the order will last.
Ukrainian servicemen load artillery before firing toward Russian positions in Donetsk on Jan. 22.Evgeniy Maloletka / AP
And in a speech at a U.N. working group on cybersecurity last month, a senior State Department official, Liesyl Franz, made no mention of Russia as a top cyber threat and cited only China and Iran.
For years, including during Trump’s first term, Republican and Democratic administrations have described Russia as one of the most sophisticated and dangerous threats to American cybersecurity.
With Trump and his deputies echoing some of Russia’s talking points about the Ukraine war and indicating they hope to expand U.S. relations with Moscow, former intelligence officials say the administration may even share some sensitive information with Moscow.
Several former U.S. intelligence officers said they and their colleagues still in government are deeply concerned about the possible implications of the administration’s shift toward Russia, in which Moscow may no longer be treated as an adversary.
“People are very worried,” a former intelligence official said.
A Ukrainian soldier fires a howitzer near the border with Russia in Lyptsi, eastern Ukraine, on Jan. 10.Wolfgang Schwan / Anadolu via Getty Images file
The Five Eyes alliance is arguably the most formidable espionage alliance in the world. The intelligence cooperation among its members is deeply embedded, dating to the 1940s, and officials have credited it with helping counter the Soviets during the Cold War and foiling terrorist plots in recent decades.
The sharing of satellite imagery and eavesdropping intelligence among alliance members is extensive, highly integrated and “nearly automatic,” a former intelligence official said.
Unwinding the technical side of the alliance’s cooperation would be complicated and difficult, former officials said. A likelier scenario could have allied governments withholding some intelligence from human sources or analyses that could cause friction with the White House, several former intelligence officials said.
Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., a member of the House Intelligence and Armed Services committees, said he was deeply concerned by the Trump administration’s “rapid pivot towards the Kremlin” and media reports that U.S. Cyber Command was pulling back on cyber operations against Russia.
“Russia is an adversary and, as always, looking for opportunities to sow discord and make trouble for Americans and for the government, so any stand-down or pullback of our operations could be catastrophic,” Crow said in an interview.
The administration’s actions on cybersecurity have fueled speculation that Washington and Moscow may have come to an informal understanding to pull back from aggressive digital operations to reduce tensions and open the way for more diplomacy.
Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., during a rally in support of U.S. Agency for International Development on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 5.Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images file
It is possible that the Trump administration and Russia have agreed to “a cyber détente,” said Emily Harding, a former intelligence official. But Harding and other former intelligence officials warned that in past attempts by the United States to forge limited cooperation with Russia, the Kremlin has proved to be an unreliable partner.
“That sounds good in theory,” said Harding, director of the Intelligence, National Security, and Technology Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington. “I think the next question is whether you think Russia would actually stick to it.”
A major hitch to any cyber détente with Moscow is Russia’s status as a hub of cybercriminals who target Americans. Russia does not extradite its citizens, and it has largely refused to work with U.S. law enforcement agencies when they identify hackers attacking American businesses, hospitals and government networks.
Of particular concern is ransomware, in which hackers, often Russian-speaking criminal gangs, deploy malicious software to lock up computer networks and demand payment.
Known attacks on the U.S. public sector frequently tied to Russia have steadily increased each year through 2024, according to a survey conducted by the cybersecurity company Emsisoft.
The cybersecurity insurer Coalition found in a report published in October that ransomware attacks around the globe cost companies $353,000 on average last year. In some instances, ransomware gangs have alluded to ties to Russian intelligence.
Philip Reiner, CEO of the Institute for Security and Technology, a San Francisco think tank that focuses on cybersecurity policy, told NBC News that any new agreement with Russia needs to persuade the Kremlin to rein in its cybercriminals who target Americans, as they rarely face legal repercussions in Russia.
“Any engagement the Trump administration has to normalize relations around cyber has got to take into account the economic terrorism that Russia engages in via ransomware gangs,” Reiner said. “That has to be a factor in any overall negotiation.”
Previous U.S. presidents from both parties have tried to “reset” relations with Russia and explored sharing intelligence about common threats with Moscow. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush asked U.S. spy agencies to pursue possible collaboration with Russia on terrorism threats. But the effort “went nowhere fast,” a former intelligence official said.
The Russians were not interested in sharing sensitive information about terrorist groups, according to former officials.
In an op-ed in 2020 in The Washington Post, former CIA officer John Sipher and other former colleagues recounted how attempts to increase cooperation with Moscow’s spy services repeatedly failed.
“Inside the CIA, we often joked that, to Putin, win-win means I beat you twice,” they wrote. “Good intentions from the U.S. side have proved time and again to have been futile in improving relations.”
