The intelligence community is quietly undergoing structural changes as agencies tackle government bloat, reorganize departments and dismantle the Biden administration’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
One of Trump’s first directives targeted weaponization in the federal government, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) — which oversees the IC — is focused on uprooting the politicization of the agency.
DNI Tulsi Gabbard launched the Director’s Initiatives Group (DIG) in April to end government weaponization and increase transparency, and she recently announced that the agency is now 25% leaner.
“The 25% reduction in the staff includes both permanent ODNI cadre officers and detailees from other IC elements, who will be returned to their home agencies as ODNI streamlines its mission space,” a source familiar told the Daily Caller.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe is also eying politicization and potential waste in his agency.
“Director Ratcliffe has made it clear that the CIA will pursue President Trump’s national security priorities with laser-like focus,” CIA spokeswoman Liz Lyons told the Daily Caller. “The Agency is determined to provide the President with an unparalleled intelligence advantage and, under Director Ratcliffe, we are aggressively doing just that.”
Ratcliffe vowed to restructure the CIA to “eliminate” politicization during a recent cabinet meeting with the president.
Similarly, Deputy Director Michael Ellis warned against politicization in a February message to CIA staff, noting their work needs “to be free from politics, bias, or any other distraction.”
Conservatives have accused the IC of politicization for years.
The FBI relied on the since since-debunked Steele dossier to accuse former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, of being a Russian agent. The bureau also reportedly surveilled school board parents and raided the homes of pro-life protesters.
Fifty-one former officials signed a letter casting doubt on the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s emails, falsely claiming it had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation, even though when Ratcliffe served as DNI during Trump’s first term, he determined there was no evidence Hunter Biden’s laptop was a “Russian disinformation campaign.”
Now, the IC is dealing with “deep state actors” leaking classified information to the press. Sources leaked to the The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in May about the IC’s plans to surveille Greenland.
Gabbard slammed the leakers as “deep state actors” who are “politicizing and leaking classified information” in a statement to WSJ.
The CIA is being revamped, but Ratcliffe has not made the “kind of broad cuts” required of other agencies, a Thursday report from CNN claimed.
Although Trump’s federal workforce directives can include national security exemptions, Lyons told the Caller that Ratcliffe is zeroing-in on ways the agency can be more efficient.
“Under Director Ratcliffe, the CIA is implementing President Trump’s Executive Orders to ensure that the workforce is responsive to the Trump Administration’s national security priorities,” she stated. “Even if exemptions are available for national security reasons, the Director believes that CIA can improve efficiency, which is why he invited Mr. Musk to headquarters earlier this year for his insight.”
Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), visited the CIA and met with Ratcliffe in April to discuss DOGE’s efforts to improve government efficiency.
While the agency’s operations are often shrouded in secrecy, Ratcliffe fired officers involved in DEI and dismissed a CIA official who played a key role in Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of the military.
The Trump administration plans to reduce the CIA’s workforce by about 1,200 people over multiple years, The Washington Post reported, citing a source familiar.
Ratcliffe emphasized “meritocracy” in an unclassified March 31 CIA memo obtained by the Caller.
“Moving forward, you will be part of a smaller, more elite and efficient workforce,” he wrote. “We will need everyone at CIA to prioritize efforts that add the greatest value and reduce those we can no longer afford to do.”
He added that “the years of growing budgets and resources are behind [CIA].”
The CIA is also reorienting its focus toward Latin America, specifically the drug cartels. This is a shift from the past two decades, where the CIA has been primarily concerned with Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, the New York Times (NYT) reported in 2021.
Trump designated the cartels “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” in one of his first executive orders.
The CIA merged the Western Hemisphere Mission Center (WHMC) and the Counternarcotics Center (CNC) into one unit — the Americas and Counternarcotics Mission Center (ACMC), according to an unclassified April 14 CIA memo obtained by the Caller.
Trump expects the agency to “play a prominent role” in targeting transnational cartels, the memo noted.
The CIA has reportedly been operating a covert drone program to identify fentanyl laboratories in Mexico, anonymous officials told the NYT.
The agency is considering using “lethal force” against Mexican drug cartels, a U.S. official and three people familiar told CNN in April. The CIA is reviewing its authorities and assessing the potential risks of targeting the cartels, according to the outlet.
The agency has also recently made efforts to improve intelligence collection on Russia and China.
The National Security Agency (NSA) is reportedly also facing cuts under Trump’s new vision for the IC. The agency has been ordered to slash “up to 2,000 civilian roles,” three people familiar told Recorded Future News.
The NSA is a signals intelligence (SIGNT) agency within the Department of Defense (DOD). Trump fired Biden-appointed NSA Director Timothy Haugh in April.
The NSA referred the Daily Caller to DOD for questions about restructuring.
“NSA is focused on carrying out the priorities of the President, Secretary of Defense, and Director of National Intelligence, which include evaluating and making strategic adjustments to its civilian workforce,” a DOD spokesperson told the Caller.
“As a combat support agency, NSA is working with the Department to meet [DOD’s] goals and ensure that workforce adjustments are conducted while we continue to execute NSA’s SIGINT and Cybersecurity missions,” the statement continued.
The DOD intends to target its “bloated headquarters,” Hegseth announced in early May.
He introduced the General and Flag Officer Reductions Policy, or the “Less Generals More GIs” directive in a video.
Hegseth ordered at least a 20% reduction of 4-star positions in the Active Component, 20% reduction of the National Guard’s general officers and a minimum 10% reduction in general and flag officers, according to a DOD memo.
“We’re going to shift resources from bloated headquarters’ elements to our warfighters,” Hegseth stated in the video.
He also directed $5.1 billion in “wasteful spending” cuts in accordance with DOGE’s findings in April.
However, the Trump administration has proposed a record $1 trillion defense budget — even though the Pentagon has yet to pass an audit.
The law enforcement arm of the IC is also not immune to restructuring.
Trump’s proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget includes a $545 million cut to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), citing a reduction in “DEI programs, pet projects of the [Biden] administration, and duplicative intelligence activities,” according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
The proposal’s recommendations concern discretionary funding.
The Caller reached out to the FBI for comment on the budget proposal and examples of any waste, fraud or abuse the bureau has eliminated. The bureau referred the Caller to Patel’s comments during committee hearings.
FBI Director Kash Patel testified in May before the House Appropriations Committee and said the bureau was “trying to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.”
Patel is reorganizing the agency to “streamline operations,” according to his May 8 opening statement. The FBI is “ensuring that the Bureau is a good steward of taxpayer dollars,” his statement added.
However, Patel pushed back against the OMB’s proposal to slash funding during his hearing. He told congressmembers the budget cuts were not what the FBI had requested.
“The proposed budget that I put forward is to cover us for $11.1 billion which would not have us cut any positions … we need more than what has been proposed,” he told Democrat Connecticut Rep. Rose DeLauro.
Patel appeared to reverse his comments the following day, and he expressed support for OMB’s budget when testifying before the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee.
“We will make and agree with this budget as it stands and make it work,” he told Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen during the senate hearing.
“I was simply asking for more funds because I can do more with more money,” Patel added.
Rep. DeLauro asked what positions would be cut due to the funding reduction, and Patel said he is not looking to cut positions.
“Ma’am, at this time, we have not looked at who to cut,” he answered. “We are focusing our energies on how not to have them cut.”
In addition to restructuring the intelligence community’s workforce, Trump has sought to eliminate DEI from federal agencies.
The CIA, ODNI, FBI and NSA have made efforts to comply with Trump’s executive orders, including by removing DEI language from government websites.
Notably, the FBI closed its DEI office in December 2024.
DNI Gabbard told Trump during a cabinet meeting that she closed the IC Human Capital Office, deeming it a “DEI slush fund.”
Additionally, Gabbard fired over 100 intelligence staffers who were in sexually explicit NSA chats.
Former President Biden’s CIA Director William J. Burns prioritized DEI, a CIA official told the Caller.
Under the Trump administration, however, the agency has scrapped its DEI office.
“Director Burns made it clear that strengthening diversity and inclusion at CIA was one of his highest priorities,” the official said. “Under Director Ratcliffe, there has been a significant change — the DEI office has been shut down and mission objectives are prioritized instead.”
AUTHOR
Associate Editor.
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