Much like he did when he hit Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, businessman-turned-acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Bill Pulte has come in ready to clean house.
Democrats are none too fond of Pulte from his stint at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA -he's still there, too), where, within mere days of walking through the doors, he'd identified empty office buildings meant for a couple of thousand workers who might see fifty on any given day, and Biden staffers who had gotten multi-million dollar severances.
So it was through gritted teeth that Senate Democrats warned Pulte off from making any radical changes, as he was just the temporary hired help.
Bill Pulte is a danger to our national security.
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) June 22, 2026
I’ve already started pressing him hard to ensure he doesn’t abuse this role for political purposes… and I will keep working to hold him to account every single day he remains in this “acting” role.
HEH
How's that going so far?
HASTA LA VISTA, BABY
Bill Pulte, President Trump’s acting director of national intelligence, has reportedly begun dismissing staff members at the agency. pic.twitter.com/k0uitPkKt5
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 23, 2026
The deep state, deeply ingrained in the oubliette of the intelligence services Spookville, is in deep doodoo as of yesterday. The acting DNI showed up a day early to get started, too.
A wave of staff reductions at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence began on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter, days after Bill Pulte, a staunch loyalist to President Donald Trump, became acting director.
Trump chose Pulte, who also leads the Federal Housing Financing Agency, to take over the agency temporarily after his first director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, announced that she was stepping down.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many individuals were affected, including how many were fired outright and how many were reassigned to other positions. Asked for comment, the White House referred to a Trump Truth Social post in which he said he had asked Pulte “to execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office, reverting staff to their home agencies.” ODNI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The move followed weeks of political drama over the fate of the office, which oversees 18 American spy agencies. The dismissals were reported earlier by CNN.
Oh, aren't the screams of, 'BUT HE'S NOT A SPY GUY!!!' soaring into the heavens.
DOOM, DESPAIR, AND AGONY ON ME!
Bill Pulte, a Trump loyalist with zero national security experience, is now Acting Director of National Intelligence. And it is going about as badly as you would expect.
— Mike Levin (@MikeLevin) June 23, 2026
Trump handed Pulte control of our entire intelligence apparatus in the middle of a foreign war and directed…
...Trump handed Pulte control of our entire intelligence apparatus in the middle of a foreign war and directed him to start firing personnel, telling the Wall Street Journal he wanted Pulte to move without worrying about the “shackles” of congressional oversight.
Days into the job, Pulte ordered staff to identify roughly 400 employees to cut from our National Counterterrorism Center. That is the office our government built after 9/11 to track terrorist threats and share warnings across federal agencies before an attack can happen.
Former intelligence officials are already saying what should be obvious to anyone. Gutting the National Counterterrorism Center weakens our ability to detect and stop terrorist plots before they reach American soil.
In my eight years in Congress, I have not seen such incompetence or recklessness.
Pulte is sidelining national security and waving off expert warnings because the President told him to. That is an unforgivable gamble with the safety of American families.
And where in the hell are my Republican colleagues?
They took the same oath I did.
Their silence right now is its own kind of betrayal.
'Gutting' is in the eye of the beholder or the fish on the table, I think. And the intelligence agencies haven't exactly been on their best game for their bloated size lately, either, have they?
And running counter to Rep. Levin's hyperbolic complaints, according to a well-sourced, well-respected newsman, the counterterrorism unit still has all its digits intact... at the moment.
NEW: From a source familiar with the matter-Personnel cuts @ODNIgov by Acting @DNIPulte began today.
— Brian Schwartz (@schwartzbWSJ) June 22, 2026
Goal is to cut what Pulte and his team view is the excess “fat” at the agency, per this source.
The counterterrorism unit at the agency has yet to be touched, per this person.
Maybe now their attention will be redirected from stalking Trump, his associates, and, say, grannies who toured the Rotunda on January 6 back to matters of importance to 'national security.'
They will also be leaner and meaner.
Oh, noes!!
Two leading Democrat lawmakers are warning President Donald Trump's acting director of national intelligence against implementing significant cuts "that are more appropriately left to a Senate-confirmed Director." https://t.co/MfW27Dm80A
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) June 22, 2026
Trump says he's got the right man for the job.
🚨 BREAKING: "DEEP STATE FIRINGS HAVE BEGUN" after Bill Pulte takes over as Acting Director of National Intelligence — CNN
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) June 22, 2026
LET'S GO! 🔥🔥
Pulte is NOT a Senate nominee so he can be HYPER-aggressive and not worry about the Senate blocking him 👏🏻
Tulsi Gabbard's work continues!… pic.twitter.com/k3WvWTaH4t
Other folks in Pulte's corner are judging him by his enemies.
Great endorsement for Bill Pulte https://t.co/XFLzts76sQ
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) June 23, 2026
Warner's already looking for a legislative fix to keep the Democrats' long-standing, weaponized state-secrets-gathering ability untouched.
What a scrounge this rubber-faced puke is.
Senator Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, launched an effort Tuesday to prevent President Donald Trump and future commanders in chief from temporarily appointing officials like housing director Bill Pulte to the position of spymaster.
The Virginia Democrat introduced a bill that would require the president to follow a Senate-confirmed line of succession in case of a vacancy in the national intelligence director’s office. Trump named Pulte, who oversees the Federal Housing Finance Agency and has no national security experience, as acting head of the intelligence community earlier this month.
“Bill Pulte may be exactly who President Trump wants running the intelligence community, but that does not make him qualified for the job,” Warner said in a statement.
Warner makes the case effortlessly that some people aren't qualified to be a United States senator, and yet here we are.
Pulte has accomplished major miracles at FHFA, taking a broken Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, talking Trump out of selling them for pennies on the dollar, and turning the federal mortgage giants into a nearly trillion-dollar value going concern.
Hey. That explains a lot of this heartburn from Democrats, doesn't it?
No doubt they are sweating bullets about what Pulte's going to find while he's cleaning house and what he's going to do about it when he does.
Pulte comes in like a bulldog - low center of gravity, doesn't get knocked over. It's not pretty, but it's effective.
Hell to the yeah, I voted for this.
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