Bill Pulte, Federal Housing Finance Agency director, speaking on CNBC on Jan. 8, 2026.
CNBC
President Donald Trump reportedly said Friday that he wants incoming acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte to “start the process” of firing large numbers of employees in the DNI’s office.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump, in an interview, said those firings would be part of a shake-up of the U.S. intelligence community. The office of DNI oversees 18 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the National Security Agency.
Trump’s comments are certain to further roil members of Congress, including Republican senators, who have already criticized the president’s appointment of Pulte earlier this week to replace outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard on an acting basis.
Trump said Thursday that Pulte is “not going to be permanent” in the role.
Trump, while flying on Air Force One to Wisconsin on Friday, was asked by reporters who is under consideration for the permanent DNI slot.
“I have five interviews, and we’ll have a very good person watching things,” he said.
Pulte, who has no intelligence agency experience, will continue to serve as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency until Trump nominates another person to be DNI.
Trump had told Pulte that he believes the DNI’s office is “unnecessary and or too big,” the Journal reported Friday, quoting the president’s characterization of that discussion.
“‘I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,’ Trump said, pointing to holdovers from the Biden and Obama administrations,” the newspaper reported.
When Trump reentered the White House for a second term in January 2025, the DNI’s office had about 1,800 employees, according to Federal News Network.
After being confirmed by the Senate as DNI, Gabbard cut nearly 30% of the office’s staff, the office said in a fact sheet issued in August 2025, which detailed her plans to make further reductions in head count.
Trump told the Journal he wants Pulte to “start the process” of trimming DNI office staff, and that his eventual nominee for DNI should continue that effort.
While Pulte’s lack of obvious practical experience for the DNI has been a major source of concern for critics of his appointment, another factor has been his aggressiveness in targeting people who have angered Trump.
Pulte last year made criminal referrals of alleged mortgage fraud against New York Attorney General Letitia James and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
A criminal indictment in Virginia federal court against James in connection with alleged mortgage fraud was dismissed last year by a judge who ruled that U.S. attorney Lindsey Halligan, who had been handpicked by Trump to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, had been invalidly appointed.
James has denied wrongdoing and said she was targeted because she successfully sued Trump in New York state court in a case alleging business fraud.
Trump last summer sought to fire Cook, citing Pulte’s allegations, which she denies. Cook, who angered Trump by refusing to vote for interest rate cuts he demanded, has remained at the Fed pending a decision by the Supreme Court on whether the president can fire her for his purported reason.