The same intelligence officials who leaked classified secrets to hurt Trump in 2016 are still on the government payroll.
Trump just sent someone new into that building – and he doesn't plan to stay long.
What he did on day one has the intelligence community in full panic.
Acting DNI Bill Pulte Arrives a Day Early and Demands 300 Names
Bill Pulte wasn't supposed to start until Friday as acting Director of National Intelligence after Tulsi Gabbard left.
He walked in Thursday anyway.
He met with lawyers, demanded a complete employee roster, and directed staff at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to pull together a list of roughly 300 names targeted for termination from the National Counterterrorism Center.
Trump made the mission explicit in a Wall Street Journal interview before Pulte ever badged in. "I'd like to see it smaller," Trump said. "I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn't be there."
The NCTC houses over 1,000 personnel drawn from across the intelligence community, federal agencies, and private contractors.
Pulte came in with no intelligence experience, no national security background – and zero loyalty to the people whose names he was collecting.
That last part is the whole point.
Steve Bannon laid out the playbook on WarRoom before the body count even started: "Walk in, find the leakers, and say, 'You're fired.' If you have to, start a criminal investigation and sweep the phones to find who leaked to CNN and the New York Times."
The leakers didn't wait. Intelligence on Pulte's 300-person target list reached CNN before he officially held the title – the deep state announced itself before he finished shaking hands.
Tulsi Gabbard Started the Purge but Left the Job Unfinished
Tulsi Gabbard spent more than a year on this problem.
Three criminal referrals went to DOJ for intelligence officials who leaked classified material to The Washington Post and The New York Times.
The acting chairman of the National Intelligence Council – the same man who signed the Hunter Biden laptop hoax letter – got fired after whistleblowers confirmed he was actively undermining the administration.
Gabbard launched an internal strike force to identify saboteurs and dissolved offices her team described as nests for deep state leakers.
She got results but she didn't finish the job.
Her husband's illness forced her out – and the people she didn't reach are still drawing government paychecks.
Senator Mark Warner made the Democrat position clear: no votes for FISA reauthorization as long as Pulte runs the agency.
That's a protection racket – the same one that kept leakers employed and unpunished through Trump's entire first term.
Republicans weren't much better. John Thune said "we don't need a weaponized DNI." John Cornyn said he saw "no evidence of any qualifications." Bill Cassidy said Pulte "is not qualified."
Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Cassidy went further – they crossed the aisle and voted for a Democrat amendment to block Pulte outright. It failed 49-49.
When both parties in Washington unite to stop one man, that's not a red flag. That's a job reference.
The Deep State Picked the Wrong Fight This Time
Trump was candid about the strategy in his Wall Street Journal interview. Acting status means no Senate confirmation – and no Senate confirmation means no shackles.
"You're less shackled," Trump told the Journal. "It sort of gives you more power, you know, for a somewhat limited period of time."
A source close to Pulte told CNN: "President Trump wanted someone in that position who is a true loyalist, who will do what he wants him to do."
They published that as a warning. Pulte took it as a job description.
The intelligence community has operated like an independent government for years – leaking to press allies, protecting its own, and hiding behind classification authority whenever accountability came knocking.
They took the most sensitive information in America and turned it into a weapon against a sitting president and his voters.
Pulte asked for the names, brought the lawyers, and started a day early.
Bannon called it right: fight fire with fire. The sledgehammer is inside the building.
Sources:
- Cristina Laila, "Pulte to Begin Mass Firings on Day One as Acting DNI," The Gateway Pundit, June 19, 2026.
- Tyler Olson, "Trump Tells Acting DNI Bill Pulte to Start Firing Intelligence Officials," Fox News, June 2026.
- "Hundreds of ODNI Jobs on Chopping Block as Pulte Begins Trump-Mandated Cuts," Dallas Express, June 19, 2026.
- "Gabbard Fires 'Deep State' Heads of National Intelligence Council," Fox News, May 13, 2025.
- Steve Bannon, @Bannons_WarRoom, X, June 19, 2026.
