Tulsi Gabbard Slashes 40% Of US Intelligence Workforce Citing 'Abuse Of Power' And 'Unauthorized Leaks'

Director of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, announced a 40% workforce cut and a $700 million annual budget reduction, according to PBS. She described the ODNI as “bloated and inefficient,” citing decades of abuse of power, leaks, and politicization of intelligence. The restructuring is part of Trump’s effort to reassess foreign election threats, a politically charged issue given his resistance to findings on Russian interference in 2016. Gabbard stressed that the intelligence community must refocus on delivering unbiased, timely intelligence to the President and policymakers. The administration has also reduced staffing at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and dissolved an FBI task force on foreign influence.