In this The Western Journal article, Emily Kopp reports that U.S. spy agencies have ballooned into a $115 billion bureaucracy across 18 agencies since the FBI’s founding, but President Trump’s intelligence chiefs are the first to aggressively downsize it.
- Outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard cut her own ODNI staff by 40 percent, redirected $1 billion, shuttered three centers, and returned detailed officials to their home agencies in an “ODNI 2.0” overhaul by August 2025.
- Gabbard’s audit exposed mission creep, bloated bureaucracy, and weaponized intelligence within the ODNI, created post-9/11 to improve coordination but plagued by persistent silos.
- Trump has instructed incoming Acting DNI Bill Pulte to slash the intelligence bureaucracy further, describing ODNI as “unnecessary and/or too big” and suggesting it could be terminated.
- Trump hopes Pulte can do “a lot of the hard work” shaking things up before a permanent director is confirmed, comparing it to Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s downsizing efforts.
- ODNI officials pledged to continue efficiency initiatives under Pulte and Trump, aiming to root out “deep state bad actors” and deliver savings to taxpayers.
- Gabbard had signaled openness to being the last DNI if the office proved unnecessary; she is stepping down May 22 for family reasons related to her husband’s cancer diagnosis.
- Remaining priorities under Gabbard include declassifying intelligence on COVID origins and Havana syndrome.
- The piece highlights past intelligence failures, including the flawed 2017 Russia assessment that violated tradecraft standards.
Read the full story:
https://www.westernjournal.com/spy-agencies-exploded-size-trumps-intel-chiefs-first-downsize/
