Politics

Trump Tells Acting DNI Director Pulte to 'Declassify Almost Everything'

Is this restoring accountability to national security or dangerously politicizing the intelligence community?

5 hours ago·Updated 4 hours ago

Trump Tells Acting DNI Director Pulte to 'Declassify Almost Everything'

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Above: Bill Pulte is sworn in during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, on Feb. 27. Image credit: Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Spin

Anti-Trump narrative

Bill Pulte has no intelligence background and a documented record of using institutional power against Donald Trump's perceived enemies. Republicans and Democrats both refused to renew Section 702 while he holds the chair. Trump just handed him a blank declassification mandate aimed at 2020 election documents, and politicizing the intelligence community makes all Americans less safe.

Nextgov.com The Washington Post

Pro-Trump narrative

Handing a temporary DNI a blank declassification check isn't the scandal. The classification system has spent decades making itself unaccountable to elected officials, burying documents that 92% of mandatory reviewers find didn't need protecting in the first place. Pulte is in the chair for sixty days. Trump is using that window to restore accountability to national security.

The Center for Renewing America The White House