RIP CIA Factbook

The Steady State | by Margaret Henoch

CIA FACTBOOK 2025-2026 ————————————————————————DJT FACTBOOK 2026-???

On February 5, 2026, the Central Intelligence Agency website announced that The World Factbook would no longer be published. (The phrase used was actually “…The World Factbook, has sunset” which could have encouraged the inference that stopping publication was a natural phenomenon, not actually something done by one of the president’s men.) Multiple news sites in the US, around the world and on the internet mourned the passing of the book, often pointing toward the interesting juxtaposition of the decision to stop publishing a book filled with and dedicated to facts, with the decision of the US public to elect an administration in serious need of just such a resource.

In a news story which could have been scripted as part of a John Le Carre novel on disinformation (or a Trump administration news conference) details of the history of the Factbook varied widely and wildly. ABC news reported that the publication began in 1947 as a classified military program commissioned as a way to educate the institutions of the United States government and “standardize basic intelligence,” including “factual and fundamental knowledge about the world.” And we all know how unnecessary that is now!

The Associated Press reported that the World Factbook was first published by the CIA in 1962, and was positioned as a “printed, classified reference manual for intelligence officers” offering “a detailed, by-the-numbers picture of foreign nations, their economies, militaries, resources and societies.” This description could lead one to the conclusion that CIA publication may have been stopped when the administration’s personnel discovered that the “by-the-numbers picture of foreign nations, their economies, militaries, resources and societies,” did not mean the information was published as actual paint by numbers pictures.

The rise and popularity of the World Factbook, for a time, mirrored the popularity of, wait for it: facts. In the years between 1950 and 1980, facts were good! They were responsible for what in those olden days were the foundations of human progress: better health, better living conditions, quicker and safer travel, quicker and more efficient movement of goods! You know: No polio!, No measles, No COVID. Science meant Clean water! Clean Air! No lead paint! The airplane! The car!

The Facts used to matter (think: Dragnet: Just the facts ma’am!). But, beginning in the 1980s, facts began to lose popularity. Remember Ketchup is a vegetable or Trees are polluting the world? Facts were slowly becoming the skunk at the garden party. The leaders of our education system “didn’t need no stinkin’” facts, and believed we the people didn’t either; no knowledge of civics, of how the US government works, less science, or knowledge of anything outside US borders, except Paris Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Resort.

And now facts are bad! We have a Health and Human Services Secretary who doesn’t believe in facts. We have a Vice President JD “Yale Law School” Vance, spreading malignant fantasies. And we have a President, too harrowing for a nickname. And, we actually do not need to look for an answer to the seemingly puzzling question of why the CIA will not continue to publish a widely used and often praised resource. That answer is staring us in the face: Donald Trump who is completely devoid of any capability for fact. Plus, he’s afraid of facts: they are kryptonite to his fantasy world.

The CIA website detailing the history of the World Factbook, included two sentences which are the meat of the case against facts: “In 1997, The World Factbook went digital and was posted on the CIA website, available to the public, and rapidly became a research tool for millions of people the world over.” And “The Factbook appealed to researchers, news organizations, teachers, students, and international travelers.” We already know that Trump is afraid of facts and detests and fears people he deems “others.” He lies constantly and extravagantly and people who can use actual facts are kryptonite to Trump’s autocratic leanings.

Now he has gotten rid of a big, popular, equal opportunity book of facts, the World Factbook, by the CIA. We don’t have to ask why. We already know.

Margaret Henoch served in the Clandestine Service of the CIA for 25 years, at Headquarters and in the field, focusing on operations and counterintelligence and retiring as a Senior Intelligence Officer. She is a member of The Steady State.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 360 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.