President Trump directed his newly installed acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, to begin removing officials from the Obama and Biden administrations across the nation's intelligence agencies, a move that hands Pulte sweeping authority over 18 agencies and more than $100 billion in annual spending without a single Senate confirmation vote.

Trump told reporters he wants Pulte to "start the process" of firing personnel while serving in an acting capacity, framing the temporary appointment as a feature rather than a limitation. The president's plan: let Pulte do the heavy lifting before a permanent intelligence chief is even named.

The directive places the CIA, FBI, and the rest of the intelligence community squarely in the crosshairs of a White House that has made no secret of its desire to shrink and reshape the federal security apparatus. Whether the firings have already begun remains unclear, but the intent is not.

From housing regulator to intelligence gatekeeper

Pulte, a former Florida real estate executive, was elevated this week from his post as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to the country's top intelligence position. The Daily Mail reported that Pulte had been angling for the role in recent weeks and told Trump he would be loyal and carry out the president's directives to the intelligence community.

By serving in an acting capacity, Pulte sidesteps the Senate confirmation process entirely. That matters. It means the administration can move immediately, no hearings, no committee votes, no floor debate, on an agenda Trump has telegraphed for months.

Trump was blunt about the advantage. He told the Wall Street Journal that an acting appointment makes a person "less shackled" and that "it sort of gives you more power, you know, for a somewhat limited period of time."

He went further, laying out the logic plainly:

"Frankly, it might be good for him to shake it up before people come. Because, if he [Pulte] reduced the size, in conjunction with me... and in conjunction with possibly the person coming in... he can do a lot of the hard work and we wouldn't have to saddle somebody that goes in."

In other words, Pulte clears the field. The permanent nominee inherits a leaner operation. The political cost of the cuts stays with the acting official who was never confirmed in the first place.

Trump's case for a smaller intelligence community

The president has not been vague about what he wants. He told the Wall Street Journal he would like to see the intelligence operation "smaller" and that "there are a lot of people in there that shouldn't be there." Asked about the scope of Pulte's review, Trump said he should "look at everything and make a determination."

The director of national intelligence oversees 18 agencies, including the CIA and FBI. Trump has described many of those agencies as "unnecessary and/or too big." The Office of the Director of National Intelligence itself appeared to welcome the new direction. A spokesman said the office looks forward to working with Pulte and Trump on "additional initiatives to advance savings and root out deep state bad actors."

That phrase, "deep state bad actors", coming from an official government spokesman, not a campaign surrogate, signals how far the internal culture has shifted under this administration. The bureaucracy, or at least its current leadership, is speaking the president's language.

The role also gives Pulte the power to declassify vast numbers of secret documents. Trump told the Wall Street Journal he wants Pulte to release more classified materials related to the 2020 election and his claims of voter fraud. Which documents those are, and what they contain, remains unspecified.

Gabbard's departure opened the door

Pulte replaces Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned last month after her husband was diagnosed with rare bone cancer. Gabbard's exit created the vacancy Trump is now using to install a loyalist on an acting basis, and to press forward with workforce reductions before a permanent pick faces Senate scrutiny.

The move has not gone down smoothly with everyone in Trump's own party. Pulte's elevation sparked backlash among Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, though the specific critics and their objections are not detailed in available reporting. The tension points to a recurring friction: even allies grow uneasy when the executive branch routes around the confirmation process on sensitive national-security posts.

That discomfort is worth noting but also worth keeping in perspective. The intelligence community spent years resisting oversight, slow-walking document releases, and treating elected accountability as an inconvenience. Lawmakers who object to Pulte's appointment method might ask themselves why the permanent confirmation process has so often failed to produce the kind of reform voters demanded.

The acting-appointment playbook

Trump's use of an acting official to execute a major restructuring is deliberate. The president has said openly that the acting designation gives Pulte more room to operate. No confirmation hearing means no hostile questioning from Senate Democrats. No floor vote means no leverage for holdouts in either party.

Pulte now briefs the president on the most classified areas of intelligence. He controls the budget. He can move personnel. And he can do it all before a permanent nominee is even announced, let alone confirmed.

The strategy carries risk. Acting officials operate under legal time constraints. Courts have occasionally questioned the scope of acting authority. And critics will argue that a housing regulator lacks the intelligence background for the job. But the White House plainly views those risks as manageable compared to the alternative: months of Senate delay while entrenched officials continue operating unchecked.

The broader pattern is familiar. Across the federal government, this administration has moved to reduce headcounts, consolidate authority, and challenge the permanence of a bureaucratic class that has outlasted multiple presidents. The same impulse that drives scrutiny of government-imposed cost burdens on private businesses drives the push to trim agencies that have grown far beyond their original mandates.

What comes next

The timeline for actual firings remains murky. It is unclear how many officials would be affected, which agencies would bear the deepest cuts, or whether any removals have already taken place. Trump has not publicly named a permanent intelligence chief, and Pulte's acting tenure is by definition temporary.

But the direction is set. The president wants fewer people in the intelligence community. He wants holdovers from previous administrations gone. He wants classified documents released. And he has installed a man who told him he would carry out those directives without hesitation.

For years, Americans watched intelligence officials leak to reporters, contradict elected leaders, and treat their own policy preferences as national-security imperatives. The agencies that were supposed to serve the public instead served themselves. Now a president is using every tool available to change that, and the people who built the status quo are the ones calling it a crisis.

Accountability was never going to be comfortable for the people who spent years avoiding it.