McLean, VIRGINIA — Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard is slashing her department’s staff and streamlining “redundant” projects in order to save money, “restore trust” in the U.S. intelligence community, and to continue rooting out the “weaponization” of intelligence.

Senior ODNI officials told Breitbart News of the transformation, dubbed “ODNI 2.0,” explaining that a wave of downsizing began Wednesday afternoon, with an emphasis on shutting down the Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC).

The FMIC, which houses the Election Threats Executive (ETE), coordinated with Big Tech companies including Twitter (now X) and Facebook shortly before the former removed the New York Post’s October 2020 Hunter Biden laptop story from its platform, officials said.

The center was “turned against the American people,” and former President Joe Biden “used it against conservatives and gun owners,” one senior ODNI adviser explained.

The FMIC was also found to be “redundant” because the National Intelligence Council and National Counterintelligence and Security Center already monitor efforts by foreign entities to influence the American public, officials added.

There were around 2,000 ODNI personnel when President Donald Trump re-entered office and tapped Gabbard to head the agency, and there has already been a 30 percent slash in staffers.

After Wednesday, the ends of entire “redundant” centers like the FMIC, the National Intelligence University (NIU), National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center (NCBC), Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC), and others will result in a nearly 50 percent decrease in staffing since Gabbard became director.

“If everything’s on fire and everything’s a priority, then nothing is,” an official said, explaining that ODNI will cut “a lot of red tape” that “stops us from being elite and agile.”

The latest round of ODNI layoffs will save taxpayers $700 million, officials added.

While some personnel will be out of a job, others will return back to their “home agencies,” including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

In closing the NIU, which officials said is “narrow in scope” and does not require its own university, Gabbard has coordinated with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to integrate students into his department’s National Defense University (NDU).

A joint letter to students from Gabbard and Hegseth obtained by Breitbart News reads, “This effort aligns with President Trump’s focus on increasing efficiencies across the government and will enhance the quality of our educational programs.”

“You will be in good hands under DOD NDU leadership,” the letter added.

While the prospect of shutting down the ODNI, established in response to September 11 attacks, was discussed during Gabbard’s Senate confirmation hearings, it was ultimately decided to let her run the agency and make revisions as she saw fit.

“Departments and agencies left to their own devices will create things like the Russia hoax,” one official said, referring to Gabbard’s recent declassification of documents revealing that the Obama administration orchestrated the narrative that Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.

Gabbard briefed Trump in the Oval Office on ODNI 2.0 about two weeks ago, coming out of the meeting with his “green light.”

“All of [Trump’s] priorities reflected in this,” an official said of the ODNI’s transformative plans.

Other than eliminating centers that had been weaponized and wrapped in red tape, the ODNI is also set to make “investments” in “prioritizing artificial intelligence (AI), quantum, and technological capabilities,” officials stated.

The intelligence community should “ebb and flow” with the country’s needs, one adviser pointed out.

Gabbard’s recent declassifications and revocation of security clearances of “current and former intelligence professionals who have abused the public trust by politicizing and manipulating intelligence” have all been aimed at “restoring trust in the intelligence community.”

The DNI informed her workforce of the changes being made in a letter that began with “Aloha.”

“To those transitioning to new opportunities, thank you for your service and dedication,” an excerpt of the letter obtained by Breitbart News states. “We deeply empathize with the disruption this may cause and are committed to supporting you through this process with options and resources to aid your next steps.”

In announcing the beginning of ODNI 2.0, Gabbard wants all other intelligence agencies to follow in similar fashion.

“We’re holding those other agencies accountable,” an official said, noting that Gabbard “wanted to lead by example.”

Gabbard re-emphasized the purpose of ODNI 2.0 in a press release.

“Over the last 20 years, ODNI has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence community is rife with abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence, and politicized weaponization of intelligence,” the DNI said. “ODNI and the IC must make serious changes to fulfill its responsibility to the American people and the US Constitution by focusing on our core mission: find the truth and provide objective, unbiased, timely intelligence to the President and policymakers.”

“Ending the weaponization of intelligence and holding bad actors accountable are essential to begin to earn the American people’s trust which has long been eroded,” she added. “Under President Trump’s leadership, ODNI 2.0 is the start of a new era focused on serving our country, fulfilling 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.”

Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.

WASHINGTON – Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced Aug. 20 that her office overseeing all U.S. intelligence agencies will undergo a massive reorganization and slash its spending by 40% to combat “abuse of power” and “politicized weaponization of intelligence.”

Gabbard called the overhaul ODNI 2.0 in a news release, and its broad contours suggest it is the biggest restructuring of the agency since it was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist acts to improve intelligence sharing and operations. One of its goals is “reduce bloat by nearly 50%,” in a reference to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s workforce.

The move is expected to save taxpayers over $700 million annually and better enable ODNI to focus on “fulfilling its critical role of serving as the central hub for intelligence integration, strategic guidance, and oversight over the Intelligence Community,” said the late afternoon news release.

“Over the last 20 years, ODNI has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence community is rife with abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence, and politicized weaponization of intelligence,” Gabbard said in the release. “ODNI and the IC must make serious changes to fulfill its responsibility to the American people and the U.S. Constitution by focusing on our core mission: find the truth and provide objective, unbiased, timely intelligence to the President and policymakers.”

Intel agency long a focus of Trump’s ire

The ODNI was established in April 2005 after the blue ribbon 9/11 Commission exposed systemic failures across the intelligence community. Its purpose was to integrate intelligence from – and provide oversight over – all of the various intel elements of the U.S. government, including the CIA, the eavesdropping National Security Agency and several military intelligence agencies.

Trump has frequently attacked the agency as politicized against him, and has vowed, along with Gabbard, to downsize and restructure it. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sponsored legislation June 27 to cap the ODNI staff at 650, down from what he said was about 1,600, to eliminate certain reporting requirements and to transfer some key counterintelligence and counterproliferation responsibilities back to the CIA.

The ODNI news release said ODNI 2.0 will eliminate redundant missions, functions and personnel, and make “critical investments in areas that support the President’s national intelligence priorities.”

It will also expose what President Donald Trump and Gabbard have called the politicization and weaponization of intelligence, and hold “bad actors accountable.”

Going after those involved in ‘Russia Hoax’

That effort expands on a campaign that Gabbard already has launched to investigate Democrats in the Obama and Biden administrations that she claims falsified intelligence to concoct a false “Russia Hoax” about Trump complicity in the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 election.

Multiple investigations and reports, including a bipartisan effort by the Senate Intelligence Committee, have found that Russia did indeed meddle in the 2016 election to help Trump defeat his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

One key target of the new overhaul is the ODNI’s efforts to call out Russia for continued interference in U.S. elections, including the 2024 president campaign, through its multi-agency Foreign Malign Influence Center or FMIC.

Refocusing FMIC’s mission will save American taxpayers at least $7 million per year, according to an ODNI 2.0 fact sheet released by the spy agency. It did not provide details of what that refocus will entail, or a similar plan to overhaul the ODNI’s National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center (NCBC) and its Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC).

“ODNI’s hyper-focus on election-related work notably began in 2017, immediately following the publication of the manufactured Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) falsely alleging Putin ‘aspired’ to help President Trump win the 2016 election,” the fact sheet said.

‘No confidence’ Gabbard is right person to conduct ODNI overhaul

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat and vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, acknowledged in a statement that there is broad, bipartisan agreement that the ODNI “is in need of thoughtful reform.”

The current Intelligence Authorization Act directs Gabbard to submit a plan to Congress outlining her proposed changes, Warner said, “and we will carefully review her proposals and conduct rigorous oversight to ensure any reforms strengthen, not weaken, our national security.”

“But given Director Gabbard’s track record of politicizing intelligence – including her decision just yesterday to revoke security clearances from career national security officials – I have no confidence that she is the right person to carry out this weighty responsibility,” Warner said.

Gabbard announced Aug. 19 that Trump had directed her office to revoke security clearances from 37 former intelligence officials for “politicizing and manipulating intelligence.” Most were affiliated with the Biden and Obama administrations or signatories to public protests of Trump’s policies.

Warner and other Democrats have also criticized Gabbard for forming a task force that amounts to nothing less than a “witch hunt” for officers and analysts within the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies it deems disloyal to Trump.

Cotton, the committee chair, called ODNI 2.0 “an important step to return the department to its original size, scope and mission.”

“I look forward to working with @DNIGabbard to implement these reforms and ensuring the IC focuses on its core mission: stealing secrets from our adversaries,” Cotton said in a post on X.

This story has been updated to include additional information.

Josh Meyer is USA TODAY’s Domestic Security Correspondent. You can reach him by email at jmeyer@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @JoshMeyerDC and Bluesky at @joshmeyerdc.bsky.social.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is celebrating how many DEI policies she has been able to cancel in the Trump administration’s first 100 days.

During a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Gabbard, 44, told all the president’s people that her agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), is about 25 percent ‘smaller and more lean’ than when she started.

‘During President Trump’s first 100 days in office, I eliminated DEI programs and policies at ODNI, and revoked security clearances and access to classified information for numerous individuals who abused public trust for political purposes,’ Gabbard said in a statement provided to the Daily Mail.

‘We are saving taxpayers millions and ensuring President Trump’s policymakers receive unbiased intelligence assessments to ensure the safety, security, and freedom of the American people.’

The director has already canceled all DEI initiatives at the agency, cut over $150 million in spending, shuttered explicit employee chatrooms called the ‘NSA sex chats’ and more, ODNI staff shared with the Daily Mail.

The agency also pulled security clearances from Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Antony Blinken, Alvin Bragg and many other opponents of Trump.

Now, the Daily Mail can exclusively report that Gabbard shut down the NSA’s ‘Pride Glossary,’ an appendix ‘filled with sexually explicit DEI terminology unrelated to protecting American security,’ ODNI staff say.

The glossary could be accessed by employees on intelligence servers, the lists were another canceled vestige of the previous pro-DEI Biden administration.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has shuttered all DEI programs within the ODNI, her aides told Daily Mail

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council Executive Director Scott Turner and the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard attend a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden on Thursday

The Daily Mail can also first report that the DNI is ending all non-merit-based recruitment for intelligence community professionals, a push prompted by an executive action signed within days of Trump taking office.

According to a Biden-era article, titled ‘Visibility Matters’ in the Intelligence Community,’ that remains up on the ODNI site, DEI was a major factor in hiring.

‘ODNI seeks to hire and retain a diverse workforce to ensure that all Americans who want to join the ranks and serve their country are able to do so, without fear of retribution for living their truth,’ a the 2022 release said.

‘As the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the leader of all 18 agencies, ODNI is committed to lead the IC in advancing an inclusive, diverse, equitable and safe work place environment for employees to thrive,’ it continued.

The agency has also referred at least three leakers for prosecution at the Department of Justice, ‘with more on the way,’ ODNI staff told the Daily Mail.

Addressing the extent of the diversity and inclusion policies on the Megyn Kelly show, Gabbard said when she arrived at the agency she was shocked at how many agency resources were allocated to DEI.

‘When I came in here… DEI was such a priority, that it was baked into the incentive structure for people to advance professionally,’ the former Hawaii congresswoman told the journalist.

‘And I would imagine it was very similar across the federal government, where some employees told me that they were put in a position where they had to spend half of their time working on DEI initiatives in order for them to be able to advance professionally,’ Gabbard added.

President Trump and DNI Tulsi Gabbard in the Oval Office

A pride flag flies outside of the FBI headquarters

Gabbard said in a recent interview with Megyn Kelly that the Biden administration seemed to center their entire administration round DEI initiatives

‘When we look at why this was a priority for the President, this is not some superficial thing,’ the DNI told Kelly. ‘There are national security implications to what the Biden administration was doing in centering almost their entire administration around DEI initiatives.’

Eliminating the ODNI’s DEI projects will save the the agency approximately $20 million annually, aides tell the Daily Mail.

The ODNI’s Human Capital Office has also been shuttered, which will save up to $150 million annually.

In February it was shockingly revealed that employees in the intelligence community were using a chat room to discuss sex and gender reassignment surgeries.

An image posted by the CIA on X celebrating pride month in 2023

Screenshots show workers casually referred to how much they enjoyed having sex upon having gender surgery in their work chat, saying ‘I’ve found that I like being penetrated (never liked it before GRS), but all the rest is just as important as well.’

Another bragged that having the surgery allowed them ‘to wear leggings or bikinis without having to wear a gaff under it.’

Gabbard vowed at the time that ‘those involved will be held accountable.’

Over 100 workers were fired as a result of the investigation.

America’s top spy agency announced it will ‘rightsize’ its overall footprint by cutting almost half of all its employees after President Donald Trump directed that members the ‘deep state’ be rooted out.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard sent out an email to Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) employees on Wednesday announcing the launch of ‘ODNI 2.0,’ the culmination of a months-long effort to reduce redundancies and cut costs, including employees.

‘This will reduce ODNI by over 40 percent by the end of the fiscal year 2025 and save taxpayers over $700 million per year,’ an ODNI press release announcing the shift says.

The move is directly in line with Trump’s efforts to reform the intelligence community and root out the ‘deep state,’ multiple senior ODNI officials who worked on the sweeping review told the Daily Mail.

And Trump has given his blessing, too, the officials stressed, noting that Gabbard herself briefed the president on the staff reduction two weeks ago, alongside National Security Advisor Marco Rubio.

Created shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, ODNI oversees 18 separate intelligence arms of the U.S. government, serving as a hub designed to connect them.

Though the exact number of ODNI employees is classified, when Gabbard took over the agency, it had between 1,850 – 2,000 staff, the sources shared.

ODNI is now expected to have around 1,300 staffers following Wednesday’s seismic shake-up.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced on Wednesday that the agency she oversees, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, will reduce staff by up to 40 percent in an effort to streamline the spy agency and cut costs

Certain ODNI employees will be fired while others will be reassigned internally and some detailees – employees on ‘loan’ from other intelligence agencies – will return to their original employers, like the CIA, FBI or others. Above USAID workers are shown leaving their HQ

Multiple senior ODNI officials told the Daily Mail that the restructuring of the agency comes at the behest of Trump. Some officials noted how the reforms will target the ‘deep state’

Gabbard’s letter said the layoffs would be effective by September 30, 2025 and would save taxpayers over $700 million annually.

The memo, which was reviewed by the Daily Mail, shares the specifics of the layoffs and has details on how the move better aligns the agency with Trump’s vision.

‘Mahalo,’ the internal announcement ends.

In addition to ODNI staffers being let go on Wednesday, the agency has also been working to slim its workforce by not hiring vacant positions, a senior ODNI official shared.

The agency is also returning detailees – workers from other intelligence agencies on ‘loan’ to the ODNI – back to their original agencies.

Five senior ODNI officials briefed the Daily Mail and other outlets on the dramatic action just before it was sent out to employees.

They stressed that the reforms will help the intelligence community become more agile and reactive to emerging threats after the ODNI has remained ‘relatively untouched for 20 years.’

A number of employees left the ODNI over Trump’s DEI executive order earlier this year, while others have accepted the administration’s ‘deferred resignation’ deals, multiple senior ODNI officials shared

‘We couldn’t move quickly enough,’ one of the ODNI officials said. ‘We have to move faster … and pivot to an elite workforce.’

‘DEI was a detriment to national security issues,’ another senior ODNI official told the Daily Mail. ‘Every position should add value.’

The slashings aim to set a framework for a larger intelligence community overhaul, the officials said, teasing that the ODNI’s reforms may soon become standard across other federal intel agencies, like the CIA, FBI and others.

Several of the senior ODNI officials stated the 2.0 project will more easily enable the spy agency to sunset outdated projects and focus on priorities.

Artificial Intelligence and how foreign actors can deploy the technology, for example, is an area of interest for the agency, one senior ODNI official shared. Fighting insurgents abroad, like ISIS, is now less of a focus, they added.

Sen. Tom Cotton looks on as Tulsi Gabbard, U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to be Director of National Intelligence, testifies during her confirmation hearing before the Senate

Other disciplines, like the ODNI’s Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC), are being shut down altogether, and their employees are either being laid off or sent to other parts of the intelligence apparatus.

The shake-up also means the National Intelligence University (NIU) will merge with the National Defense University (NDU) into a joint program now overseen by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth instead of the ODNI.

A satellite campus for the ODNI in Reston, Virginia – where the National Intelligence Council (NIC) meets – will also be shuttered and all NIC employees will now report to ODNI.

Sen. Tom Cotton, the chair of the Senate’s intelligence committee, recently put forward a proposal that would limit the number of ODNI staff to 650, about half of the active workforce following Wednesday’s announcement.

Even some ODNI officials pushed back against Cotton’s more drastic cuts, arguing that his number appears to be too small to effectively operate the spy agency.

‘In the national security space we’re not looking to slash and burn,’ a senior ODNI official told the Daily Mail.