US President Donald Trump said Friday that he wants the acting intelligence chief to begin firing staff, deepening controversy over the appointment of a man with no prior intelligence experience.
Republican President Bill Bolt, a Trump loyalist who heads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, on Tuesday named him acting director of national intelligence.
“If he cuts the service, I won’t mind that,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that headcount in Polte’s office had been “too high for too long.”
Trump had previously said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that he wanted Bolte – who will oversee 18 sprawling US intelligence agencies – to reduce staff numbers.
“I would like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people who shouldn’t be there,” Trump told the newspaper, citing opponents from the Biden and Obama administrations.
Democrats condemned Bolte’s appointment to replace Tulsi Gabbard as CIA chief, citing the loyalist’s history of using government records as a weapon against Trump’s opponents.
