At the CIA, Julia Curlee says colleagues had started an office pool predicting when she would be fired after Donald Trump returned to the White House.
The smart money expected her to be gone almost immediately. Instead, Curlee says she remained in her role for 68 days longer than colleagues predicted, beating what they called the 'Fire Julia' pool.
What happened next is at the centre of her account: a transgender CIA officer who had spent years handling America's most sensitive intelligence says her identity became a problem only after it was publicly targeted.
Curlee's claims are based on her personal account of events and have not been independently verified by the CIA or other officials.
Julia Curlee was the first CIA officer to transition openly and keep working at the agency. The Trump White House needed her—until her identity became public. She recounts her time in service in The Atlantic’s October issue:https://t.co/TBp5rSbixd pic.twitter.com/zs7iZCHCQ3
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) August 17, 2026
A Career Built on Secrets
Curlee joined the CIA in 2007 and went on to serve under four presidents, travel to 35 countries, and work on the President's Daily Brief, one of the agency's most sensitive intelligence products.
She also briefed former President George W. Bush and served as Vice President Mike Pence's daily intelligence briefer. Curlee transitioned in 2013 while remaining at the CIA. By the time Trump returned to office in January 2025, she was a senior intelligence official assigned to the White House. Her transgender identity was not a secret.
Trump Returned, and Curlee Stayed
Curlee says senior officials warned her before Trump's second inauguration that she could become a target. She chose to remain. On Inauguration Day, Trump declared that the US government would recognise only two genders.
Curlee says she gripped her badge and briefly considered leaving the White House for good. Instead, she stayed and continued performing her duties. That decision became increasingly complicated as the administration introduced policies affecting transgender federal employees.
Curlee says she lost workplace protections and insurance coverage for estrogen, while having to plan her days around finding bathrooms outside the White House. Yet officials still required her intelligence expertise.
Then Laura Loomer Targeted Her
The turning point came weeks later. Curlee says her supervisor suddenly told her that her White House assignment was ending. He did not provide a reason, but still asked her to return the following Monday to help with the transition.
Then her phone began filling with messages about Laura Loomer. The far-right activist had publicly referred to a transgender Biden-era employee working in the White House intelligence office and asked people to help identify that person. Curlee says she believed Loomer was referring to her.
Curlee returned to the White House without a badge or access to her accounts. She spent her final three days helping officials complete the work she had been handling before leaving. Senior Trump administration officials, she says, also stopped to thank her.
The Mystery Behind Loomer's Information
Curlee's account raises an unanswered question. She says a list of alleged 'enemies' supplied by Loomer eventually reached Trump's desk. She questioned how an online activist could obtain names and get such information into the White House without assistance from someone inside the administration.
Curlee does not identify such a person, and her account does not establish that Trump personally ordered her removal because she was transgender. But she points to what she sees as a significant sequence of events.
Trump officials knew she was transgender from the beginning. According to Curlee, the issue changed only after her identity became a public target.
The Pence Connection
Curlee's earlier experience with Mike Pence makes the contrast more significant. She says she initially feared briefing Pence because of his conservative views on LGBTQ issues.
Instead, she describes a professional relationship in which he focused on her intelligence work rather than her identity. When her assignment ended, Pence welcomed Curlee's family to the White House and told her mother he was proud of her daughter.
Curlee later gave Pence a letter identifying herself as a transgender CIA officer. His response, she recalls, was simple, 'I'm glad I passed the test.'
Why Curlee Eventually Left
Curlee returned to the CIA after leaving the White House but says she eventually reached her breaking point. By June 2025, she says the agency's LGBTQ employee group had been disbanded and Pride flags had been removed.
She considered sending colleagues two sentences for Pride Month, 'Happy Pride. You are not alone.' Then she became concerned the message could be used against her. She deleted it.
After nearly two decades at the CIA, Curlee resigned. The woman who once encouraged transgender young people to consider serving at the agency says she can no longer make that recommendation.
Her story is ultimately about more than one career. Curlee argues that when experienced intelligence officers become afraid to speak, serve, or identify themselves openly, national security suffers as well.
For years, she says, America trusted her with its secrets. Her contention is that the secrets never changed. Only the circumstances around her identity did.
