Staff Reports
President Donald Trump has publicly told Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte to start cutting staff across the intelligence community — and he means it. That instruction builds on Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s earlier ODNI 2.0 overhaul, which already pared ODNI staff dramatically and redirected money away from bloat. This is not polite housekeeping. It is a fight over how big and political the U.S. intelligence apparatus should be.
Trump Tells Pulte: “You’re Less Shackled” — Time to Cut
The Wall Street Journal captured the point plainly: the President wants his acting intelligence chief to move fast while he’s “less shackled.” Bill Pulte will serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence while still running the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and that temporary status gives him latitude to make changes before a permanent DNI is in place. Trump even floated the idea that ODNI could be “much smaller” or “maybe even terminated.” Critics howl about experience; supporters see a chance to break the deep-state habit of protecting its own.
Gabbard Already Trimmed ODNI — The Proof Is In the Paystub
Tulsi Gabbard didn’t just talk reform. Her ODNI 2.0 work cut roughly 40 percent of ODNI staff and produced substantial annual savings — figures ODNI says amount to roughly seven hundred million dollars a year, and officials are vetting about a billion more to redirect. She closed whole centers, sent detailed staff back to their agencies, and declared war on mission creep and weaponized intelligence. If anyone thinks these are mere photo ops, the numbers say otherwise.
Good Policy — If It’s Targeted; Dangerous Mistake — If It’s Blind
What to watch: risks and politics
Conservatives should cheer rooting out politicization, waste, and a permanent bureaucracy that leaks and sidelines accountability. That said, national security isn’t a buzzword to be used while gutting the integration functions that prevent surprise attacks and coordinate analysis across agencies. ODNI was created to knit together eighteen parts of the intelligence community; rip out the stitching and the garment falls apart. There’s also real political fallout: lawmakers on both sides are wary, and the controversy is already tangling with renewal votes for key surveillance authorities like Section 702. If Pulte’s cuts are smart and surgical, they will strengthen us. If they are raw and wholesale, they will hand critics an easy narrative and hollow vital capabilities.
How to Cut Without Cutting Ourselves Off
If Pulte and President Trump want real reform, do it with a plan. Start with audits and performance metrics, protect core analytic tradecraft and fusion centers, require sunset reviews for any closed programs, and reassign—not just fire—experienced officers into roles that preserve institutional knowledge. Keep transparency with Congress and avoid the theater of firing for headlines. The goal should be to root out the deep state and reclaim taxpayer dollars — not to leave America less informed or less safe. Trim the fat, but don’t throw out the engine with the grease; otherwise the only thing the swamp will have left to sell is nostalgia for the old guards.
