US National Intelligence faces mass layoffs — CNN
Photo: Donald Trump (Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump recently appointed Bill Pulte as the new acting director of national intelligence. From his first day in office, Pulte began a large-scale reduction in the agency’s staff, according to CNN.
"The deep state firings have begun," a source notes, referring to shadowy groups that influence political and economic processes within the US federal government.
As CNN discovered, last week Pulte showed up at his new job a day early, catching the outgoing director, Tulsi Gabbard, off guard and requesting a list of all agency employees.
Moreover, the list was to include performance ratings for the employees. Two sources claim that this request may be linked to Pulte’s order to carry out mass layoffs.
The cuts are expected to hit the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) and the National Counterintelligence and Security Center particularly hard.
According to a CNN report, the first layoffs began as early as Monday. They started after Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees sent Pulte a letter warning him of the risks of large-scale staff reductions.
Senator Mark Warner and Representative Jim Himes wrote in the letter that they were concerned about reports of potential cuts.
They explained that following the cuts in 2025 and a likely new wave of layoffs, such decisions could jeopardize the mission of the organization, which was established after September 11, 2001, to prevent future terrorist attacks.
"Given your lack of experience within the Intelligence Community, it is difficult to imagine that in such a short amount of time you have already developed fully informed views as to how to shrink ODNI without incurring risks to national security. Making significant structural changes to ODNI, to include a reduction in force, is not an appropriate course of action for anyone in an acting capacity, let alone without consultation with Congress, and you should refrain from doing so," they add.
US resignations
In April, media reports emerged that Donald Trump was considering a major shake-up of his Cabinet. The reason was political pressure stemming from the war with Iran and falling approval ratings ahead of the midterm elections.
One of the candidates for dismissal was Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who subsequently resigned. Joe Kent, director of the Counterterrorism Center, also resigned due to his opposition to the war in Iran.
In addition, Attorney General Pam Bondi was fired. Sources from various media outlets reported that Trump was irritated by his voters’ negative reaction to the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.
