President Donald Trump has reportedly directed the Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte (DNI) to begin the process of firing a “large number” of people from the DNI office. Pulte was tapped to replace former DNI Tulsi Gabbard after she stepped down following her husband’s diagnosis with bone cancer.  

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump told them in an interview, “I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there.” He said that there were people who were holdovers from the Biden and Obama administrations. When he was asked if he has ordered Pulte to conduct firings, he responded that he asked the new DNI to “start the process,” and added that the eventual nominee will continue that work.  

Trump said that because Pulte is just the acting DNI, and is not the permanent nominee in the position, that he is a “less shackled” and it “gives you more power, you know, for a somewhat limited period of time.”

The president added that he wants Pulte to make changes in the agency before another nominee is appointed to the post. “Frankly, it might be good for him to shake it up before people come,” Trump said. “Because, if he [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.”

The president is in the process of interviewing people for the nominee position. He wants Pulte to approach the role similarly to how Education Secretary Linda McMahon has worked to reduce the size of the Department of Education. “We’ve made the Department of Education much smaller, and likewise, this should be much smaller,” Trump said, referring to the DNI office. “And this should maybe even be terminated, and we’ll make that decision.”