Top intelligence agency begins mass firings under new Trump appointee, source says

President Donald Trump's new acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, began purging staff members at the office Monday, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News.

"The deep state firings have begun," the source said.

CNN was first to report that the dismissals were underway.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump named Pulte the acting director this month and said on Truth Social that he had "asked him to execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office, reverting staff to their home agencies." Pulte, who has no background in national security matters, has been serving as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

A separate source with knowledge of the matter told NBC News over the weekend that Pulte had ordered staff members to identify 400 employees to be fired from the National Counterterrorism Center, which is part of the U.S. intelligence community, in the coming weeks.

Pulte issued the instruction late Thursday — before he officially took over for outgoing Director Tulsi Gabbard, the source said. He started his new post Friday.

The potential cuts at the counterterrorism center are focused on an office set up after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to monitor terrorist threats and suspected militants and to pool information from across federal agencies. Former intelligence officials have said reductions at the counterterrorism center could jeopardize the government's ability to detect and prevent terrorist plots.

In a letter to Pulte earlier Monday, the top Democrats on the congressional intelligence committees, Rep. Jim Himes D-Conn., and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said they were "concerned by reports that you intend to fire or place on leave hundreds of Office of the Director of National Intelligence officers as soon as this week."

"Making significant structural changes to ODNI, to include a reduction in force, is not an appropriate course of action for anyone in an acting capacity, let alone without consultation with Congress, and you should refrain from doing so," their letter said.

The Democrats noted the office had already undergone a "substantial downsizing" in 2025, as the Trump administration carried out widespread layoffs across the federal workforce.

The Government Accountability Office said in a report this month that in all, about 256,000 federal workers — 11% of the workforce — had been let go in 2025. At ODNI, a document released in August said the agency reduced its size by nearly 30%, or "more than 500 staffers," in the first six months under Gabbard and that it was looking to increase that amount to 50%.

Trump named Pulte to the nation's top intelligence post after Gabbard announced she was stepping down for family reasons. Pulte was met with bipartisan concerns in Congress, in part because of his lack of national security experience.

Trump later said Pulte would not serve in the role permanently and announced he would nominate Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, instead, but then he hit the brakes on Clayton's nomination hours before his Senate confirmation hearing.

Trump has asked Senate Republicans not to act on Clayton's nomination until his replacement as U.S. attorney is installed.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com