One Reason Trump Might Have Chosen His New Intelligence Chief

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There are two reasonable reactions to the news that Bill Pulte has been named acting director of national intelligence: “Who?” and “Him?” Pulte, the current head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, will replace Tulsi Gabbard, who announced her departure last month after an unhappy and unempowered spell as the DNI.

Pulte is taking the post on an interim basis, becoming the latest administration official to do multiple jobs. In some cases, such as Marco Rubio’s dual roles as secretary of state and national security adviser, obvious connections exist between the jobs. In others, such as Rubio’s stint as the national archivist, they do not. Pulte is in the latter camp. Knowing how long he might be in the job is impossible. Donald Trump has in the past shown little eagerness to fill roles. He prefers to have loyalists on hand, and he might struggle to find anyone qualified who is willing to serve. Besides, the Senate, which has already been slow to confirm some appointees, is currently gummed up on other business.

Three things about Pulte are important to know: First, he has no apparent intelligence experience. Second, he is being assigned to fill an important government-coordination position, but his brief track record shows that he has a tendency to clash with and infuriate colleagues rather than work with them. Third, the most notable thing that Pulte does bring to the role is a demonstrated history of using sensitive government data for political retribution.

The law that established the DNI states that “any individual nominated for appointment as Director of National Intelligence shall have extensive national security expertise.” When Trump appointed Gabbard—a former Democratic member of Congress who endorsed him in 2024—she became by far the least-qualified person to ever hold the job. Pulte somehow has fewer qualifications; Gabbard was at least a member of Congress. (On the plus side, he’s never been accused of lying about conversations with foreign dictators or being a Russian asset, unlike her.)

Trump’s announcement of Pulte’s assignment conspicuously did not cite any relevant work, and The New York Times delicately notes that Pulte “has no known experience for a national security role.” Some intelligence work is necessarily secret, but given that Pulte is just 38 years old and has a well-documented work history, past clandestine work seems unlikely. Trump may see a bit of himself in Pulte: the young scion of a real-estate family (the Pultes are major home builders) who has boundless confidence in his own abilities. That approach has not been working well for Trump recently.

This shallow experience is particularly concerning given the reason the job exists. The DNI was created as part of post-9/11 reforms to the intelligence community. Inquiries including the work of the 9/11 Commission found that intelligence agencies not sharing information with one another had contributed to the failure to prevent the attacks. The DNI was designed to sit atop all of the agencies, including the CIA and the NSA, and ensure their coordination (although critics of the current structure have argued that it needs more power).

If the goal is for top officials to work together, Pulte is not a promising person to make that happen. One of the most notable incidents involving Pulte during this administration was when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent heard that Pulte was badmouthing him to Trump and tried to fight Pulte. “Why the fuck are you talking to the president about me? Fuck you,” Bessent said, according to Politico. Even cooler-headed intelligence officials may not be enthused about taking direction from a young, unqualified political appointee.

The one area in which Pulte has shown actual skill is the use of government information to launch retribution campaigns against Trump’s political enemies. Using agency data, Pulte launched mortgage-fraud investigations into Senator Adam Schiff of California and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats, and Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. (James was charged, but a judge threw out the case because she found that the acting U.S. attorney involved had not been lawfully appointed, and a grand jury declined to bring new charges. Cook accused Pulte of cherry-picking data; after Trump fired her, she sued, and the Supreme Court has not issued a final ruling, but lower courts ruled against Trump. Schiff denied wrongdoing and has not been charged; Cook remains on the board.) Reuters reported that two members of Pulte’s family have filed housing claims similar to the ones for which he investigated Cook.

Last year, the Government Accountability Office opened an investigation into whether Pulte had improperly used mortgage data. And top Fannie Mae officials were fired after they complained that a Pulte aide had improperly shared data from the federal housing lender with a competitor.

The efforts to investigate Schiff, James, and Cook are all troubling, and more so if federal data were used improperly. So far, these efforts seem to have mostly come up short, either for lack of evidence or for other procedural failures by the Trump administration. But as the DNI, Pulte would have much greater access to sensitive data, creating the opportunity for far greater abuses than anything alleged during his time at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and he could pursue Trump’s revenge against anyone involved in investigating his ties to Russia. It’s hard not to suspect that that’s the reason Trump has chosen someone otherwise so unqualified for the job.

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Today’s News

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told senators in a hearing today that “the war is over,” despite the fact that a peace deal has not been signed with Iran. He also said that the Trump administration has not offered Iran sanctions relief or access to frozen assets in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, adding that any easing of sanctions would have to be tied to limits on Iran’s nuclear program.
President Trump signed an executive order asking technology companies to voluntarily submit new AI models for government review before releasing them to the public, which marks a step toward regulating the technology.
The Trump administration will shelve its proposal for a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. The fund, intended to compensate people who say that they were targets of political “weaponization” presumably under the previous administration, had drawn opposition from both parties and was temporarily blocked by a federal judge last week.

Evening Read

A photograph of a starry sky with beams of light — Photograph by Will Matsuda

The Ordinary Miracle of Existing

By Alan Lightman

On the northwestern shore of Africa, some 150 miles south of the Canary Islands, the coastline slightly bulges in a pimple known as Cape Bojador. For Europeans in the early 15th century, Cape Bojador marked the boundary between the known and the unknown. North of the cape was civilization and the cities of light. South were the mystical lands of Africa and the Mare Tenebrosum, the “Sea of Darkness.” Ancient notions, dating back to Ptolemy, claimed that Africa was surrounded by boiling seas filled with giant creatures, whirlpools, and perpetual darkness. No sailor had ventured south of Cape Bojador and returned.

The challenge was taken up by Prince Henry of Portugal. Between 1424 and 1434, he sent 14 ship expeditions to round the perilous cape. None succeeded. All turned back from fear or foul weather. Yet the unknown beckoned.

Read the full article.