President Donald Trump knows that his nominee for director of national intelligence can't be confirmed by the Senate.
An exclusive Wall Street Journal report revealed that Bill Pulte, who Trump nominated this week, has a reputation of "moves fast and breaks things," as one CNN reporter said on Tuesday.
The expectation is that Pulte will take Trump's revenge campaign up a notch, deploying the entirety of the U.S. intelligence apparatus against the president's perceived enemies. The office of the DNI oversees 18 intelligence agencies from the CIA to the NSA and others. It was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when the investigative commission found the intelligence departments weren't able to connect the dots between details each agency discovered.
Trump told the Journal personally, that he believes the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is “unnecessary and or too big.”
“I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,” Trump said, about those who worked in the Joe Biden and Barack Obama administrations.
The Journal asked Trump whether he wants Pulte to start firing people, and Trump said he wants him to “start the process.”
Trump also added that "his eventual nominee to serve in the role permanently should continue that work."
The comment appears to acknowledge that Pulte will not be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Indeed, many Republicans have indicated they're opposed to the nominee, but Pulte can serve as an "acting DNI" and implement all of the changes Trump wants before he appoints someone who could get confirmed. As an "acting" official, Pulte can serve for 210 days, or until the Senate votes to deny him.
“Frankly, it might be good for him to shake it up before people come,” Trump said. “Because, if he [Pulte] reduced the size, in conjunction with me … and in conjunction with possibly the person coming in … he can do a lot of the hard work and we wouldn’t have to saddle somebody that goes in.”
Trump said he is interviewing possible permanent candidates, two of whom he'll speak with on Friday. "One from business and one from the world of politics. Bill is not going to be there that long."
Trump said he wants to see Pulte do what Education Secretary Linda McMahon has done in her department.
“We’ve made the Department of Education much smaller, and likewise, this should be much smaller,” Trump told the Journal, referring to ODNI. “And this should maybe even be terminated, and we’ll make that decision.”
Trump also mentioned that Pulte should feel free to release any classified documents that he wants.
“I would say everything — he should look at everything and make a determination," Trump said.
Even some of Trump's own advisors were shocked by his nomination of Pulte, who has no experience in intelligence, defense or even law enforcement. He's been Trump's director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
“We don’t need a weaponized DNI,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said, speaking to reporters this week.
