President Donald Trump has named Bill Pulte as acting Director of National Intelligence, where he will replace Tulsi Gabbard at the helm of the country’s spy agencies.
Pulte comes into the role with effectively no direct experience in intelligence. He currently serves as the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees the U.S. housing finance system. But Pulte has close ties to Trump and has been a reliable ally to the President, having publicly attacked and helped initiate probes into several of his political enemies.
In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday announcing Pulte’s appointment, Trump pointed to what he characterized as his “deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets, and over 10 Trillion Dollars at Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac,” referencing two government-sponsored firms designed to support the U.S. mortgage market to which Pulte serves as chairman. Pulte will remain as chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Macand FHFA director in addition to acting as national intelligence director.
Pulte has been in his role as the head of the FHFA since last March. He previously founded his own investment firm and served on the board of PulteGroup, the home-construction company founded by his grandfather. Prior to him joining the Administration last year, he and his wife had reportedly donated around $1 million to Trump’s political activities.
During his time as FHFA director, Pulte has made multiple criminal referrals to the Department of Justice (DOJ) over allegations of mortgage fraud against Trump’s adversaries, including former Rep. Eric Swalwell and Sen. Adam Schiff, both Democrats of California; New York Attorney General Letitia James; Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook; and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. All five have denied the allegations.
After Pulte made two criminal referrals against James in March, her lawyer, Abbe D. Lowell, accused “Trump and his political enablers” of “abusing their power to pursue a vendetta against her by trying to rename, refile, and repeat baseless allegations.”
Swalwell sued Pulte in November, claiming he used his power to “concoct fanciful allegations of mortgage fraud.”
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) launched a probe into Pulte in December after a group of Senate Democrats asked the watchdog to investigate whether he misused his authority in making the referrals.
Beyond the criminal referrals, Pulte also joined Trump in attacking former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, calling for his resignation and blasting him for not lowering benchmark interest rates as much as the President wanted.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, accused Pulte in a letter last July of straying from his responsibilities as FHFA director amid an American housing crisis.
“Instead, you appear to have been primarily focused on convincing President Trump to illegally fire Jerome Powell,” Warren wrote. She noted that since the start of that month, Pulte had made over 100 posts and reposts about Powell on X.
Pulte’s appointment as the acting chief of national intelligence quickly drew criticism from several lawmakers on Tuesday.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, highlighted Pulte’s lack of the “extensive national security experience” required by a statute for the role and claimed he was “chosen for his willingness to advance the president’s political agenda rather than his experience.”
“That is how intelligence becomes politicized, how inconvenient facts disappear, how agencies charged with protecting our democracy instead become tools to manipulate it, and how Americans are left more vulnerable to a terrorist attack,” Warner said. “It is that he appears to have been selected precisely because the White House believes he will provide the narrative it wants, not the intelligence we need.”
Pulte’s appointment comes after Gabbard announced last month that she was resigning as Trump’s top intelligence official effective June 30 to be with her husband after he was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer.
It is unclear how long Pulte will serve as acting intelligence director. If nominated for the position on a permanent basis by Trump, he would need to be confirmed by the Senate.
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