Bill Pulte, newly installed as acting Director of National Intelligence, has reportedly moved swiftly to begin trimming the bureaucracy inside one of Washingtons most entrenched intelligence offices.
According to The Post Millennial, Pulte, who formally assumed the role on Friday, began implementing staff reductions as early as Monday, with one source telling CNN that "the deep state firings have begun." Ahead of his first official day, Pulte reportedly appeared at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and requested a complete roster of every employee, a move that "catching even outgoing director Tulsi Gabbard off-guard," as CNN reported.
The reported shake-up follows President Donald Trumps directive that Pulte dismiss a "large number" of personnel from the ODNI, a sprawling post?9/11 bureaucracy that conservatives have long criticized as unaccountable and politically biased. Pulte was said to be examining plans to cut hundreds of positions, signaling a serious effort to rein in what many on the right view as an overgrown and ideologically captured intelligence apparatus.
Democrats on the Senate and House Intelligence Committees quickly moved to defend the status quo, issuing a warning letter to Pulte on Monday. "We are concerned by reports that you intend to fire or place on leave hundreds of Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) officers as soon as this week," wrote Sen Mark Warner and Rep Jim Himes, arguing that such reductions would "jeopardize" the offices mission.
The lawmakers insisted that previous downsizing in 2025 already went too far and portrayed any additional cuts as a threat to national security rather than a needed correction to years of mission creep. "While there is room to consider responsible reductions to ODNIs 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 added.
Warner and Himes also took aim at Pulte personally, questioning his background and authority to carry out structural reforms. "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," they wrote, adding that "making significant structural changes to ODNI, to include a reduction in force, is not an appropriate course of action for anyone in an acting capacity, let alone without consultation with Congress, and you should refrain from doing so."
The White House, however, has made clear that Pultes mandate is to streamline and decentralize, not to preserve a bloated Washington power center. A White House official, responding to CNNs questions, pointed to President Trumps Truth Social announcement: "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."
For conservatives who have long argued that the intelligence community has morphed into a partisan "deep state," Pultes early moves signal a rare willingness to confront an entrenched bureaucracy that often operates beyond democratic accountability. The coming weeks will reveal whether Congress succeeds in slowing the effort, or whether the administration follows through on its promise to return power to the agencies core missions and away from a centralized, politically charged ODNI.
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