President Donald Trump would welcome incoming acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte’s cutting the intelligence community’s workforce.“I wouldn’t mind if he cut,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Friday. “It’s been high for way too long.”The president reiterated that Pulte would “do a good job” and that the new spy chief would watch the size of the workforce “closely.”
Trump also said he has “five interviews” for outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s permanent replacement.
“Five different people, all very good, all people that you know very well, all people that do that kind of thing, and they’re very respected people,” he added.
Trump told the Wall Street Journal earlier Friday that he had asked his Federal Housing Finance Agency director and chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to “start the process” of firing a large number of employees at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
“I’d like to see it smaller,” he told the outlet. “I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there.”
