Bill Pulte, President Donald Trump’s newly installed acting Director of National Intelligence, has begun to purge the agency of staffers after pledging to cut hundreds of jobs, according to reports.
Trump-loyalist Pulte took over from Tulsi Gabbard last week, who stepped down after her husband was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer.
The number of firings was not immediately clear, but the National Counterterrorism Center was expected to be “hit hard” by the cuts, according to ABC News and CNN. During her tenure, Gabbard had already cut about 40 percent of her office, according to The New York Times.
“The deep state firings have begun,” a source told CNN. Last week, Pulte surprised Gabbard by showing up a day early to the new role and asked for a list of every employee in the office to determine whether to fire them, CNN also reported.
The Independent has contacted the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for comment.
Trump instructed Pulte, who is also director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to begin the firings in a June 2 Truth Social post, when he named him as acting director of the intelligence agency.
“I have named William Pulte to be Acting Director of National Intelligence, who will take over on June 19th, and have asked him to execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office, reverting staff to their home agencies,” the president said.
Democrats on the Senate and House Intelligence Committees expressed concern in a letter Monday about Trump’s pick to temporarily run the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees 18 agencies, given Pulte’s lack of experience.
“We are concerned by reports that you intend to fire or place on leave hundreds of Office of the Director of National Intelligence officers as soon as this week,” Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes wrote in the scathing letter to Pulte.
“While there is room to consider responsible reductions to ODNI’s workforce, any large cuts would follow on a substantial downsizing that has already occurred in 2025 and risk jeopardizing the mission of an organization explicitly created after 9/11 to prevent any future such terrorist attack,” they said.
“Given your lack of experience within the Intelligence Community, it is difficult to imagine that in such a short amount of time you have already developed fully informed views as to how to shrink ODNI without incurring risks to national security,” the lawmakers added.
Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, previously predicted Pulte would “do whatever” to “do the president’s political laundry” and called his temporary appointment “the worst and probably most dangerous” of the administration.
Pulte’s appointment has ruffled feathers among Republicans and some of Trump’s closest advisers, according to the outlet.
The nomination for Trump’s permanent pick for Director of National Intelligence, Jay Clayton, stalled after the president told him not to show up for his own confirmation hearing following a dispute with Democrats over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act—a lapsed surveillance law.
GOP Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Tom Cotton said it was “regrettable that the president has directed Jay Clayton not to appear at his confirmation hearing.”
