Trump Urges New Acting Intelligence Director to Clean House

President Donald Trump on Friday said that he has urged acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte to reduce the number of people overseeing intelligence in the government, saying there are “are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there.”

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal in an exclusive interview, Trump said he believes the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), an agency that oversees 18 intelligence departments and units, should be reduced in size.

“I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,” Trump told the outlet. He suggested that holdovers from previous administrations could be removed.

When asked by the Journal whether he wants Pulte to fire workers in the office, Trump said he wants him to “start the process” and that whoever is named to become the permanent director of national intelligence can continue the process that Pulte started.

Before being named to head the intelligence agency, Pulte had headed the Federal Housing Finance Agency and was chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He was tapped by Trump after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard handed in her resignation last month to assist her husband, who was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer.

Trump told the newspaper that Pulte’s acting status could provide him with a greater capacity to remove people from the ODNI and that a shakeup might be needed before he names a permanent replacement.

“You’re less shackled,” he argued. “It sort of gives you more power, you know, for a somewhat limited period of time.”

He added that “frankly, it might be good for him to shake it up before people come” before saying that if Pulte reduced its size, “he can do a lot of the hard work and we wouldn’t have to saddle somebody that goes in.”

Trump told the Journal that the ODNI “should maybe even be terminated, and we’ll make that decision,” pointing to his administration’s efforts to shrink the size of other departments since he took office.

“We’ve made the Department of Education much smaller, and likewise, this should be much smaller,” he said.

While speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump said that Pulte will not be nominated to permanently serve as the head of the ODNI, adding that other candidates are being interviewed for the job. “It’s an acting position,” the president said. “It’s not permanent. I don’t think he’d want to be permanent.”

Trump praised Pulte as a “very smart guy” and added that he “may find out some things about the rigged elections.”

Pulte’s appointment to the top U.S. intelligence position drew criticism from Democrats and some Republicans. Several Republican senators said they would not support Pulte if Trump nominated him to serve permanently as director of national intelligence, with some saying that he lacks the necessary experience.

“The Senate doesn’t have any role to play in terms of confirming acting officials but I see no evidence of any qualifications for that job,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told The Hill about Trump’s decision.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told reporters earlier this week he is concerned Pulte would use his access to classified intelligence materials to target Trump’s enemies, claiming that he has done so with mortgage data.

“He has weaponized mortgage information,” Warner alleged, without providing details. “He’s going to suddenly be given the keys to the most ​classified secrets that keep our country safe.”