U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced Wednesday that her agency would be undergoing a massive reduction in staff by October, part of the latest effort by the Trump administration to revamp the country’s intelligence agencies.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, ODNI 2.0 is the start of a new era focused on serving our country, filling our core national security mission with excellence, always grounded in the U.S. Constitution, and ensuring the safety, security and freedom of the American people,” Gabbard said in an evening news release.
Gabbard’s cuts — which reports suggest could impact as many as half of the agency’s employees — would reassign roles or eliminate various departments, including those that monitor foreign efforts to influence Americans; the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (including biological weapons); and a team monitoring for cyberattacks.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has nearly 1,850 employees. Staff will begin receiving notices as early as Wednesday, with positions set for termination serving their final day on Sept. 23, according to a letter obtained by ABC News.
According to a DNI fact sheet published Wednesday, the Foreign Malign Influence Center, National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center and the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center will be dissolved and their functions incorporated into ODNI’s Mission Integration directorate and the National Intelligence Council.
Cuts will also target technology systems and contractor-heavy programs, including a decision to combine National Intelligence Manager teams with the National Intelligence Council.
Additionally, the National Intelligence University responsible for education and training programs will be transferred to the Department of Defense’s National Defense University, as part of an effort administration officials argue will reduce duplication in intelligence training.
Other closures include the External Research Council, a panel responsible for independent analysis. ODNI’s fact sheet describes it as “politically appointed partisans who brought their external biases and politics into the intelligence process from a senior advisor role.”
The Strategic Futures Group, a panel focused on long-term strategic analysis that publishes a Global Trends report every four years, is also slated for elimination.
“A draft of the 2025 Global Trends Report was carefully reviewed by DNI Gabbard’s team and found to violate professional analytic tradecraft standards in an effort to propagate a political agenda that ran counter to all of the current President’s national security priorities,” the DNI’s fact sheet reads.
The agency is also planning to close its Reston, Virginia, campus and consolidate operations at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The workforce reduction comes a day after Gabbard revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former intelligence officials, many of whom had ties to prior Democratic administrations.
Earlier this month she released a series of documents questioning the legitimacy of the intelligence community’s 2017 conclusion that Russia aimed to “undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process” — while accusing former president Barack Obama of “treason” for knowingly fueling what she claimed were false claims.