“The Acting Director of Political Retribution.” Sadly, that might be the best shorthand title for the official chosen Tuesday to oversee the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies. Our new spy chief has zero intelligence experience but a stellar record as a political loyalist to President Donald Trump.
Even by Trump administration standards, the appointment of Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to be acting director of national intelligence was a stunner. Pulte is probably best known for making allegations of mortgage fraud against some of Trump’s political enemies. His national security résumé is thin even compared with that of his much-criticized predecessor, Tulsi Gabbard.
U.S. and foreign intelligence officials were rocked by the surprise announcement. Reactions ranged from “deep disappointment to outrage,” one insider told me. What reassured some officials was an expectation that Pulte will be a figurehead, available for Trump’s special missions but not acting as a day-to-day spy chief. During Pulte’s tenure, greater power will probably flow to CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who gets solid marks from foreign partners and congressional oversight committees.
Why did Trump choose Pulte after saying that he would select the “highly respected” Aaron Lukas, Gabbard’s principal deputy and a former CIA case officer? One answer may be that he wanted a reliably loyal aide as DNI to continue Gabbard’s hunt for foreign interference in U.S. elections, an allegation that could become a pretext for an attempt to federalize elections as the GOP faces potentially devastating losses in November’s midterms.
Pulte’s personal story tracks Trump’s own. He’s the scion of a real estate tycoon and has made millions in private equity. Like so many Trump insiders, he’s a Floridian and a frequent visitor to Mar-a-Lago. And he has Trumpian self-promotion skills. The Wall Street Journal reported that he pitched himself personally to be ODNI chief before Trump selected him last weekend — surprising even the ODNI front office, I’m told.
Pulte has been among Trump’s most aggressive allies in seeking retribution for what the president sees as past wrongs. Last year, he used his position as head of the FHFA (and also as board chairman of federal lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department charging four prominent Trump critics with mortgage fraud.
The first target was Letitia James. As New York attorney general, she had won a $355 million fraud judgment against Trump and his business. The penalty was later voided as excessive, but the finding remains. In April 2025, Pulte sent a criminal referral alleging that James had fraudulently claimed Virginia as her primary residence. The Trump Justice Department indicted her, but a judge dismissed the case. An attempt to seek another indictment also failed.
Next up was Trump nemesis Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California). In May 2025, Pulte referred him for allegedly claiming falsely that Maryland was his primary residence. Schiff’s attorney Preet Bharara protested in a letter to the Justice Department: “We are disturbed by the highly irregular, partisan process that led to these baseless accusations.” The U.S. attorney in Maryland never pursued the prosecution.
After that came a move against Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, who he alleged in August 2025 had claimed two homes as her primary residence. Trump called on her to resign and then tried to fire her. Cook sued to protect her job, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court. The justices haven’t yet made a final decision.
The Cook litigation came as Trump was trying to pressure Fed Chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates — which eventually escalated to a criminal investigation of Powell.
Pulte got that ball rolling too. Pulte posted on X an allegation that Powell’s renovations of the Fed building were “riddled with Fraud.” Trump said he might fire Powell over the issue and then pressed the Justice Department to prosecute. Justice finally dropped the probe last month, and Powell stepped down after his term ended last month.
Pulte’s final fraud campaign was against then-Rep. Eric Swalwell, who he alleged in November 2025 had falsely claimed Washington, D.C., as his primary residence. Swalwell then sued Pulte, claiming that “Pulte has abused his position by scouring databases at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac … for the private mortgage records of several prominent Democrats” and “used those records to concoct fanciful allegations of mortgage fraud.” Swalwell eventually dropped the case and was never prosecuted in the mortgage matter. (He resigned from Congress and dropped his California gubernatorial bid following allegations of sexual misconduct by several women.)
Now, in choosing Pulte as acting DNI, Trump has given one of his most loyal operatives oversight of the government’s most sensitive secrets. That worries career officials at ODNI headquarters at Liberty Crossing, near Tysons, Virginia. The ODNI was already stumbling because of Gabbard’s inexperience and haphazard management.
The intelligence disarray is growing: Top analysts are said to be wary of joining the ODNI’s National Intelligence Council because they fear political pressure to spin judgments. The CIA has stopped contributing to some ODNI assessments because of the friction, according to a story this week by Reuters.
Pulte’s nomination drew bipartisan criticism this week, and it seems unlikely that he could get enough Senate Republican votes to be confirmed permanently as DNI. But his tenure as an acting director can stretch to January under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. That’s long enough to further damage the morale of a battered agency that a growing number of critics say is too broken to fix.
Trump’s disdain for the intelligence community is becoming costly, as U.S. diplomacy struggles to resolve the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran. This is a moment when the White House needs the best advice it can get — from professionals who are ready to tell the president the truth. Instead, we’re witnessing a dismantlement of the U.S. national security system that former CIA director William Burns has described as “great-power suicide.”
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