Trump Installs Real Estate Executive to Downsize Intelligence Coordination Agency

President Trump appointed William J. Pulte, a real estate and finance figure without intelligence experience, as Acting Director of National Intelligence on June 9, 2026, with an explicit mandate to reduce staff across the ODNI. The agency coordinates the seventeen-agency U.S. intelligence community and handles budget authority and presidential briefings. Pulte's lack of domain expertise follows Trump's pattern of prioritizing loyalty and restructuring over professional background. The ODNI's downsizing poses institutional risks: cutting coordination staff affects inter-agency intelligence fusion and triggers civil service and congressional notification requirements.