Trump Orders His New Intel Chief to Fire More People
President Trump wants his new director of national intelligence to fire more people.Trump told The Wall Street Journal Friday that he told Bill Pulte, whom he named acting director of national intelligence, that he thought the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was “unnecessary” or “too big.”“I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,” Trump said, referring specifically to people hired in the Obama and Biden administrations. He said he wanted Pulte to “start the process.” Reducing the size of the ODNI, created after the 9/11 attacks to streamline information sharing between intelligence agencies, is a concerning move for intelligence officials in the government, and suggests that Trump is trying to restrict its staff to loyalists. Trump believes that naming Pulte as acting director, which doesn’t require Senate confirmation, gives him more flexibility to clean house before a permanent director is named.“You’re less shackled,” Trump said in the interview. “It sort of gives you more power, you know, for a somewhat limited period of time.”“Frankly, it might be good for him to shake it up before people come,” he added. “Because, if [Pulte] reduced the size, in conjunction with me … and in conjunction with possibly the person coming in … he can do a lot of the hard work and we wouldn’t have to saddle somebody that goes in.”Pulte used his authority as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (which includes the financial institutions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) to go after Trump’s enemies with accusations of mortgage fraud. In his new position, he now has intelligence assets, and Trump wants him to get rid of the people who might have a lot of inside information about the president.