Trump Orders Intelligence Agency Purge, Names Pulte to Shrink ODNI

President Trump ordered acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte to shrink the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which oversees 18 federal intelligence agencies and employs approximately 1,800 staff members. Trump stated the office is “too big” and targeted “people in there that shouldn’t be there,” specifically naming holdovers from the Obama and Biden administrations for removal, according to an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Friday, June 6, 2026.

Trump appointed Pulte to the acting DNI role without requiring Senate confirmation, allowing him to serve for 210 days while implementing cuts. Pulte currently directs the Federal Housing Finance Agency and has no national intelligence experience; he previously used his FHFA position to file criminal referrals against Trump’s political opponents alleging mortgage fraud. Former DNI Tulsi Gabbard already reduced agency staff by nearly 50 percent and cut the budget by over $700 million annually, and Trump’s ODNI official stated plans to “root out deep state bad actors,” signaling further political purges ahead.

Trump has a documented history of undermining U.S. intelligence agencies, most notably siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s denial of Russian interference in the 2016 election against the assessment of U.S. intelligence services. Pulte never underwent a security clearance process before Trump announced his selection as acting DNI, departing sharply from standard vetting procedures and raising questions about whether loyalists rather than qualified professionals will lead U.S. intelligence.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican, told reporters the ODNI requires “professionals” rather than a “weaponized” agency, while Democratic Senator Mark Warner accused Trump of appointing “someone who will be willing to shape intelligence around the president’s wishes.” Trump defended Pulte’s lack of experience by saying he could “shake it up,” and told reporters Pulte might investigate “the rigged elections,” hours after Trump claimed without evidence that Democrats were cheating in California primaries.

Trump cited Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s gutting of the Department of Education in 2025 as a model for ODNI downsizing, stating the intelligence office “should be much smaller” and could eventually be “terminated.” The ODNI was created by Congress in 2004 following the 9/11 attacks to coordinate intelligence sharing among federal agencies and produce the President’s Daily Brief, a classified document compiled from all intelligence agencies presented to the president each morning.(Source: https://time.com/article/2026/06/06/trump-ODNI-intelligence-cuts/)