Acting spy chief plans hundreds of layoffs at ODNI

Hundreds of layoffs at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence would reach far beyond a routine personnel cut. The office sits at the center of the U.S. intelligence system, where it is supposed to synthesize warnings from 18 agencies and organizations into a usable picture for national security leaders.

Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte sought a list of every employee in the office so he could assess who to fire, then met with lawyers and staffers during his visit, according to people familiar with the matter. The staffing review came as Pulte prepared to take over the sprawling intelligence bureaucracy and as the Trump administration pushed to shrink government agencies and rework personnel pipelines across national security.

The operational stakes are high because ODNI is not a narrow policy shop. It describes itself as a senior-level staff organization focused on collection, analysis, acquisition, policy, human resources and management. Its mission also includes integrating intelligence work across counterterrorism, counterintelligence and security, counterproliferation, cyber integration and counterinfluence. Deep cuts at that layer could ripple through how agencies share warnings, coordinate priorities and turn raw reporting into finished intelligence.

Donald Trump had already signaled support for a hard reset. He named Pulte acting director of national intelligence on June 2, 2026, despite bipartisan concerns about Pulte’s lack of intelligence experience and his role as a housing official. Trump later said he wanted his new acting intelligence chief to be “less shackled” and free to start cutting. Several Republican lawmakers, including Anna Paulina Luna, Lloyd Smucker, Marsha Blackburn, Tommy Tuberville, Andrew Clyde, Lance Gooden and Paul Gosar, publicly praised the appointment.

The backlash was immediate on Capitol Hill. Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said that if the report was true, Pulte “should never spend a minute” in the director role. He also said the committee would scrutinize any personnel decisions or declassifications closely. ODNI’s leadership page listed William J. Pulte as acting director, underscoring how quickly the personnel fight had become a test of whether political pressure was reshaping the government’s intelligence capacity at a moment of war, cyber threat and global instability.