Intelligence Firings Begin Under Pulte, Who Has No Intelligence Experience

The firings at the top of America’s intelligence system have begun, and the man ordering them has never worked in intelligence. Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte, who runs the federal housing-finance agency, started cutting staff at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence this week, NBC News reported.

A Housing Official Over the Spy Agencies

Pulte’s entire government record is in housing finance. He chairs the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and he is heir to a homebuilding fortune. He has never worked in intelligence or national security.

Federal law sets a bar he does not clear. 50 U.S.C. § 3023 requires the director of national intelligence to have “extensive national security expertise,” and a George Washington University professor of international affairs said Pulte’s appointment is contrary to the law that created the office. The doubts run across party lines. Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell warned that the job demands that expertise, and Sen. John Cornyn said he saw “no evidence of any qualifications for that job.”

We covered his appointment and the objections to it earlier this month. The firings are the part that worried lawmakers then, now underway.

The Cuts Now Underway

Pulte arrived early on his first day, asked for a full list of ODNI employees, and is weighing firing hundreds, according to CNN. The cuts follow a Truth Social post in which Trump ordered an “immediate” downsizing of the office, with staff sent back to their home agencies.

The office is already far smaller than it was. ODNI began Trump’s second term with roughly 1,800 to 2,000 employees, then lost about 40 percent of that workforce last year under the previous director. Pulte is now cutting hundreds more on top of that.

ODNI exists to tie the intelligence community together. It coordinates the work of all 18 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, FBI, and NSA, so that warnings move quickly and agencies are not working from different pictures of the same threat.

18 intelligence agencies are now coordinated by a director with no intelligence experience.

Both Parties Told Him Not To

The objections came from across the aisle. The top members of the congressional intelligence committees, Rep. Jim Himes and Sen. Mark Warner, argued that a temporary, unconfirmed appointee should not make sweeping, permanent cuts to the intelligence workforce, as Government Executive reported. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican, has said the office needs “professionals.”

Why the Cuts Carry a Risk

Intelligence officials and lawmakers describe the danger in concrete terms. Firing experienced analysts and officers erases institutional memory, the hard-won knowledge of how a threat develops and who is already tracking it. It also slows the production of intelligence at a moment when fast, accurate warning matters most, and it weakens the coordination that ODNI is supposed to provide.

There is a second concern about why the cuts are happening. CNN reported worries among former officials that the office could be turned toward Trump’s election-fraud claims, blurring the line between foreign intelligence and domestic politics. Pulte has already drawn scrutiny for using his housing post to pursue criminal referrals against the president’s opponents.

What You Can Do Now

Call your senators at (202) 224-3121. Ask them to call for Bill Pulte’s removal as acting director of national intelligence and for a qualified, Senate-confirmed replacement, and to demand the firings stop until then.
Contact the Intelligence Committees directly. The Senate committee is chaired by Tom Cotton, with Mark Warner as vice chair, at intelligence.senate.gov. Ask them to hold a hearing and require Pulte to justify, in writing, why each cut does not harm national security.
Ask your House representative to back Rep. Jim Himes’s objection to sweeping workforce changes by a temporary appointee. The House Intelligence Committee has oversight of ODNI.
Use the letter below to tell your members of Congress to stop an inexperienced, temporary official from hollowing out the office meant to keep the country safe.