(A)Political - June 6th

Good morning everyone,

It’s been a busy week. Let’s dive in!

Trump is now encouraging the acting director of ODNI to cut a large portion of the agency’s workforce. The U.S. Senate has just passed a $70 billion dollar funding bill for immigration agencies. Trump has now nominated Deputy AG Todd Blanche to replace his former boss.

• ODNI Head Pulte Encouraged By Trump To Cut Staff

• Senate Passes $70 Billion Dollar Bill For I.C.E. & Border Patrol

• Todd Blanche Nominated for Attorney General

ODNI Head Pulte Encouraged By Trump To Cut Staff

President Donald Trump said Friday he has directed incoming acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte to begin firing large numbers of employees at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as part of a broader shake-up of the U.S. intelligence community, escalating an already contentious appointment into a full restructuring fight just days into Pulte's tenure.

In a Wall Street Journal interview published Friday, Trump said he had told Pulte privately that ODNI is "unnecessary and/or too big" and asked him to "start the process" of personnel cuts. "I'd like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn't be there," the president said, directing Pulte to focus on holdovers from the Biden and Obama administrations.

Pressed on the topic later in the day on Air Force One as he flew to Wisconsin for an agriculture event, Trump reiterated the position more bluntly. "I wouldn't mind. [The size of the office has been] way too high for way too long. Yeah, I wouldn't mind," he told reporters. "He'll do a very good job. He'll watch it closely, but Bill Pulte is very good, he's very talented."

Pulte, who continues to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency and serve as chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, takes over as acting DNI when Tulsi Gabbard's resignation becomes effective June 30. He has no prior background in intelligence work.

The "Less Shackled" Argument and the 210-Day Window

Trump framed Pulte's acting status as an asset rather than a limitation. "You're less shackled," the president told the Journal. "It sort of gives you more power, you know, for a somewhat limited period of time." He suggested the temporary tenure was well-suited to the cuts he was demanding. "Frankly, it might be good for him to shake it up before people come," he said. "Because, if he 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."

Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, Pulte's acting tenure is capped at 210 days from the start of the vacancy. Trump compared the approach to Education Secretary Linda McMahon's efforts to shrink the Department of Education, suggesting an even more aggressive outcome was on the table for ODNI. "We've made the Department of Education much smaller, and likewise, this should be much smaller," Trump said. "And this should maybe even be terminated, and we'll make that decision."

The director of national intelligence formally oversees 18 federal intelligence agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. The office's authority to direct personnel actions at those individual agencies — as distinct from inside ODNI itself — is limited.

The Senate Backlash and the FISA Vote

The fallout reached Capitol Hill before the day was over. Early Friday morning, the Senate blocked a procedural motion to open debate on a three-year extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the warrantless surveillance authority that authorizes the collection of foreign-target communications and is set to expire at 11:59 p.m. on June 12. The motion failed 52-47, with seven Republicans joining 45 Democrats in opposition. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to vote in favor.

The seven Republicans who voted to block the measure were Sens. Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt of Missouri, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rick Scott of Florida, and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.

Democrats explicitly attributed the failed vote to Pulte's appointment. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he and Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton had reached a "compromise" on the extension before Trump's pick, but that the "complete irresponsibility of putting forward" Pulte had changed the calculus. Warner questioned the wisdom of handing Pulte "the keys to the 18 intelligence agencies."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was more blunt, calling Pulte "a hack who does Trump's bidding, no matter how egregious that bidding might be." Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon framed the bipartisan vote as a broader civil-liberties stand against warrantless surveillance of Americans' communications.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune acknowledged that the Pulte appointment's timing "arguably wasn't the best" but said it should not derail a national security renewal. He indicated the Senate would try again next week, though any new motion will need 60 votes to advance.

The ODNI Workforce and Gabbard's Cuts

The office Pulte is being asked to shrink has already undergone substantial cuts. When Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, ODNI had approximately 1,800 employees. Gabbard, who described the office as "bloated and inefficient" upon arrival, executed her own restructuring under an "ODNI 2.0" initiative announced in August. The administration said at the time that the office's annual budget would be reduced by more than $700 million.

Estimates of the workforce reduction under Gabbard vary; the administration has cited a roughly 40 percent cut, while other accounts have put the figure closer to 30 percent. Several longstanding ODNI products and offices were consolidated or discontinued in the process, including the quadrennial "Global Trends" strategic forecast, which had been published since 1997.

Critics of ODNI inside the administration have argued the office was a duplicative layer that should have been cut more aggressively from the start. "The whole thing was a post-9/11 mistake," one former Trump administration official said. "It was supposed to be very small and elite, and now has 1,800 employees who just duplicate what other agencies do." A second former official cited "a large number of leaks over the past few months" out of ODNI and said that if Pulte's mandate is to "plug the leaks and scale back ODNI while maintaining the fusion of intelligence across agencies, Pulte might do just fine."

The 2020 Election Files and the Permanent Replacement

Trump also indicated he wants Pulte to continue Gabbard's declassification work, particularly regarding the 2020 election. Asked by the Journal what specific material he hoped to see released, Trump said, "I would say everything — he should look at everything and make a determination." Speaking with reporters Thursday, he said Pulte's tenure may yield revelations: "You may find out some things about the rigged elections."

On the question of who will eventually fill the role on a permanent basis, Trump has been clear that Pulte is not the answer. "It's an acting position. It's not permanent. I don't think he'd want to be permanent," he said Thursday. Asked Friday on Air Force One about potential nominees, Trump said he had "five interviews" underway with "very respected people" but declined to name them.

There is recent precedent for using the acting DNI position as a vehicle for restructuring before a Senate-confirmed director arrives. During Trump's first term, Ric Grenell served as acting DNI from February to May 2020 before being replaced by John Ratcliffe, who now leads the CIA and has emerged as the president's principal intelligence interlocutor on the Iran war. Whether Pulte's mandate produces a comparable institutional reset, or unravels further on Capitol Hill, will become clearer as the FISA fight resumes next week.

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