WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� President Donald Trump says in a new interview that he wants to start firing national security officials and he wants to see the intelligence community 鈥渟maller.鈥�
In the interview with The Wall Street Journal, the Republican president says he has already conveyed his view to , the incoming acting DNI, who has served as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency but apparently has no national security expertise.
鈥淚鈥檇 like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn鈥檛 be there,鈥� Trump said, which the Journal said was in reference to intelligence community officials who had served in the Democratic administrations of Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
Trump told the Journal that he wants Pulte to 鈥渟tart the process鈥� of firing personnel and that the eventual permanent director of national intelligence should continue it. The president has indicated that he for the position.
鈥淔rankly, it might be good for him to shake it up before people come,鈥� Trump said. 鈥淏ecause, if he (Pulte) reduced the size, in conjunction with me 鈥� and in conjunction with possibly the person coming in 鈥� he can do a lot of the hard work and we wouldn鈥檛 have to saddle somebody that goes in.鈥�
Pulte was tapped by the president earlier this week in a surprising move that has been met with bipartisan resistance in the Senate, which confirms presidential nominations. The temporary appointment has now snarled the renewal of on Capitol Hill, with Democrats key to the vote pointing out that they did not trust Pulte 鈥� whose office oversees 18 intelligence agencies 鈥� to help administer the surveillance program.
Under Pulte鈥檚 successor, Tulsi Gabbard, the DNI office had already taken steps to . In August, the Trump administration said that the office鈥檚 budget would be cut by more than $700 million per year, while slashing the size of its workforce.
At the time, Gabbard said the office had become 鈥渂loated and inefficient鈥� while she announced the roughly 40% workforce reduction.
Gabbard after revealing her husband鈥檚 cancer diagnosis.
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