Acting DNI Bill Pulte launches mass firings at the ODNI

President Donald Trump named Federal Housing Finance Agency head Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence in June 2026. Within days Pulte arrived at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) a day early, demanded a list of every employee and began “downsizing” the agency. Sources said the first wave of dismissals started on a Monday, with a source telling CNN, “The deep state firings have begun.” Reports indicate that more than 50 career and political intelligence staff have been terminated or reassigned, and a separate source said Pulte ordered the identification of roughly 400 employees at the National Counterterrorism Center for possible removal.

Democratic members of the Senate and House intelligence committees, including Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Himes, sent a letter warning that such cuts could jeopardize the ODNI’s mission – an organization created after 9/11 to prevent terrorist attacks – and that an acting official without intelligence experience should not make structural changes without congressional consultation. The firings have drawn bipartisan criticism, with Senate leaders calling Pulte’s lack of experience a national‑security risk.

At the same time, Trump paused consideration of his permanent DNI nominee, Jay Clayton, and linked renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to passage of the Save America Act, further heightening the political controversy surrounding the intelligence leadership transition.