America’s top spy office is quietly being gutted by a housing regulator with no intelligence background, and the third wave of cuts has now begun.

Story Snapshot

• President Trump’s acting intelligence chief Bill Pulte has already removed 51 ODNI staff and is starting a third round of reductions.
• Pulte says he is targeting “redundant, or non-critical, personnel,” but there is no public plan showing how those roles are defined.
• Bipartisan critics say his appointment skirts the law and could weaken U.S. intelligence, while supporters see a long‑overdue purge of the “deep state.”
• The fight over Pulte’s purge reflects a larger problem: a government run by insiders using legal loopholes, with ordinary Americans left wondering who is really being protected.

Trump’s Unusual Pick and Pulte’s Mission to Cut

President Donald Trump named Bill Pulte, the nation’s top housing finance regulator, as acting Director of National Intelligence earlier this summer, even though Pulte has no prior national security experience. Trump announced on social media that Pulte would both keep his job overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and lead the entire intelligence community at the same time. In that same announcement, Trump told Pulte to “execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office,” making cuts his main mission, not building new capabilities.

On his first day, Pulte arrived early at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, asked for a list of every employee, and began planning who should go. Multiple reports say he wanted names for hundreds of jobs to cut, viewing the agency as bloated and out of touch with the country it serves. This aggressive start fits Trump’s long‑running promise to shrink what he calls the “intelligence bureaucracy,” which many Americans across the political spectrum now see as part of a protected elite.

What the ODNI Purge Looks Like So Far

Since Pulte took over, 51 staff members at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have been removed from their roles, according to reporting confirmed by several outlets. Six people were fully fired from federal service, while 45 others were sent back to their “home agencies,” like the Central Intelligence Agency or National Security Agency, where they technically still work for the government. Senate Intelligence Chairman Tom Cotton said Pulte personally told him that “around 45 or 50” officers were being returned and only a “small handful” were leaving government entirely.

Sources familiar with the process told CBS News that none of the staff removed so far came from the counterterrorism group, which tracks threats like foreign terror plots. Some officials said the cuts focused on people without current assignments or working on projects no longer seen as priorities. The removals also follow an earlier downsizing plan under former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who had already moved to shrink the office by about 40 percent to save hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Supporters See a Deep State Cleanup, Critics See Illegal Firings

Conservative outlets frame Pulte’s moves as a long‑overdue cleanup of “deep state” insiders who politicized intelligence and hid information from elected leaders. One report, citing an anonymous intelligence official, says the Trump team targeted officials “who they believe are deep state” and accuse them of not giving a full picture of available intelligence. For many frustrated Americans, on both the right and left, this matches a broader feeling that entrenched officials protect themselves first, not the public they are supposed to serve.

Mainstream outlets and legal experts tell a very different story: they argue Pulte never should have been acting Director of National Intelligence in the first place and therefore lacks the authority to fire anyone. The National Security Act says the principal deputy director “shall” serve as acting chief when the job is vacant, and that the director must have significant national security experience, which Pulte does not. Barbara McQuaid and other experts say that if his appointment is unlawful, civil‑service employees cannot be legally terminated by him, calling America “less safe” as a result.

Congress Pushes Back and the Vacancies Act Problem

Opposition to Pulte’s role is not limited to Democrats. Republicans like Senators Tom Tillis and James Lankford have publicly called him unqualified and labeled the situation “a hot steaming pile of” political theater, not serious security work. Senator Mark Warner responded by introducing the “Do Not Interfere with Our Intelligence” bill, which would force the Senate‑confirmed principal deputy to become acting director and block presidents from installing outsiders like Pulte in such a sensitive post. This push shows how worried lawmakers are about presidents using loopholes to sidestep regular checks and balances.

𝐏𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐒 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐄𝐏 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐋 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐀𝐗𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝟓𝟎+ 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐇

Acting Director of National Intelligence 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐏𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐞 confirmed Friday his office has begun a 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝… pic.twitter.com/zLV1yOsheF

— M.A. Rothman (@MichaelARothman) July 11, 2026

Analysts at the Cato Institute and Brookings say Pulte’s appointment is part of a broader pattern in both Trump terms: the heavy use of “acting” officials in key posts to avoid Senate confirmation and keep power in loyal hands. A Congressional Research Service report found that the Trump administration has relied on acting leaders in intelligence positions more than past presidents. That pattern feeds a growing belief among ordinary Americans that Washington is run by insiders who bend the rules, whether they are Republicans or Democrats, while the public deals with the fallout in the form of instability, mistrust, and a weaker sense of national unity.

Sources:

thegatewaypundit.com, theatlantic.com, cnbc.com, instagram.com, facebook.com, nytimes.com, justsecurity.org, apnews.com, thehill.com, cato.org, pbs.org