President Donald Trump on Friday backed a proposal for deep cuts to America’s intelligence operations.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he supports efforts by his pick for director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, to cut staff, saying the number of people working in the department has been “way too high for way too long.”
“If he cut, I wouldn’t mind,” Trump said.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump wanted Pulte to begin firing employees as part of a shakeup of the U.S. intelligence community.
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“I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,” Trump told the Journal.
Trump said he wants Pulte to “start the process” of making cuts and shrinking the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, pointing to holdovers from previous administrations.
Trump’s temporary pick to replace Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence has received some backlash given Pulte has no experience in national security.
Trump told the Journal that Pulte’s temporary status would allow him to be “less shackled” in his role.
“It sort of gives you more power, you know, for a somewhat limited period of time,” Trump said.
While the Trump administration has successfully shed roughly 300,000 employees from the federal rolls since taking office, it has largely done so by offering various voluntary incentives for staffers to leave government.
The vast majority of federal workers cannot be fired at will, instead requiring a lengthy notice period that can be challenged and subsequently appealed. Widespread layoffs also require a lengthy and complex process, though the administration largely circumvented those steps during such reductions last year.
Many employees in the intelligence community, however, are part of what is known as the “excepted service,” meaning they do not enjoy the same protections as do most other civil servants. CIA employees, for example, generally cannot appeal their firings to an independent board established for the rest of the federal workforce. Intelligence agency leaders also hold broad powers to fire employees for national security purposes.
Gabbard said last year that she pushed out 500 employees from her agency, or about 30% of its workforce. Those reductions were largely accomplished through separation incentives.
Gabbard’s tenure as the director of national intelligence will end on June 30.
Pulte will be able to serve for 210 days in an acting capacity even as he’s also continuing to run the Federal Housing Finance Agency, where he’s faced criticism for pushing prosecutions against Trump’s adversaries.
Trump told reporters Friday that he is interviewing five people for the permanent role heading up the intelligence apparatus.
“All people you know very well. All people who do that kind of thing, and respected people,” he said.
In the meantime though, Trump told the Journal “it might be good for him [Pulte] to shake it up before people come.”
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