When Tulsi Gabbard resigned as director of national intelligence in May, it was hard to imagine her replacement could be so much more unqualified. Gabbard spent her tenure waging turf wars with the CIA and selectively weaponizing classified disclosures for partisan theater. To be sure, Donald Trump has never been particularly interested in qualifications for members of his Cabinet. Competence is optional, and loyalty has always mattered more. Yet Trump’s decision to install Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence somehow managed to shock even his most steadfast MAGA allies.The usual chorus of praise was there, of course, but this time, even prominent conservatives flinched.
Pulte, the current head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has no meaningful background in intelligence, espionage, military affairs, counterterrorism or national security. His career high-water marks include inheriting a construction fortune, running an attention-seeking cash-giveaway scheme on social media and serving as Trump’s head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, where he became a top proponent of the predatory and controversial 50-year mortgage. The true, chilling utility of Pulte to the Trump project lies in his track record of weaponizing government agencies against domestic political opponents.
Since taking over the housing finance agency, Pulte has sent criminal referrals to the Justice Department targeting Democrats including California Sen. Adam Schiff, former California Rep. Eric Swalwell and New York Attorney General Letitia James, as well as Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and others — all of whom are prominent critics of Donald Trump. The referrals produced no charges. The case against James was dismissed after a federal judge found that Trump’s handpicked prosecutor had been unlawfully installed. In December, the Government Accountability Office launched an investigation into whether Pulte had abused his government position to target political enemies. This all apparently impressed his boss.
Trump does not want an intelligence director who protects America from foreign adversaries; he wants a DNI who will selectively declassify government documents on his behalf.
Trump does not want an intelligence director who protects America from foreign adversaries; he wants a DNI who will selectively declassify government documents on his behalf.
Steve Bannon, in full wartime-consigliere mode on his “War Room” podcast, praised the selection as a warning sign for Trump’s critics on the left and immediately pushed for MAGA influencer Jack Posobiec of Pizzagate infamy to be installed as Pulte’s deputy.
Despite Bannon’s glee, Pulte’s elevation to acting DNI was quick to expose that the stench of the rot inside Trump’s administration is starting to reach much of the MAGA media ecosystem. A housing regulator suddenly becoming America’s top intelligence official is so obviously absurd that it tests the limits of dutiful compliance. Even the people who built the MAGA movement can’t quite look directly at that and call it acceptable.
Erick Erickson, the conservative radio host and founder of the RedState political blog, did not hold back. “Bill Pulte is one of the worst members of the President’s team,” he wrote on X, “and has convinced Trump to do more stupid stuff than anyone else in the past year.” Jonah Goldberg, editor in chief of the right-leaning outlet The Dispatch, was equally withering: “Great, a totally unqualified loyalist with a record of cutting corners to help the president punish political opponents. Just the guy you want at DNI.” On Fox News, Washington Examiner contributor Byron York called Pulte “a pretty poor choice.”
Even Gabbard, who cut more than 30% of the ODNI staff during her tenure, was imminently more qualified. The DNI office and position was created by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, an initiative designed to ensure that 18 intelligence agencies collaborated so that the country would never again fail to “connect the dots” as it did before the Sept. 11 attacks. The law is explicit that the director role should go to someone with “extensive national security expertise.” Pulte does not come close to meeting that standard, and even Republicans who normally swallow every Trump improvisation admit as much.
As Sen. Susan Collins of Maine — one of the authors of the law that created the DNI position — noted with barely concealed alarm, she had no idea whether Pulte even had a security clearance. “I do not know Mr. Pulte at all,” Collins told reporters on Tuesday. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton offered the kind of frozen, evasive non-comment that signals a party too intimidated or too exhausted to defend what it knows is indefensible. Outgoing Sen. Bill Cassidy, recently defeated by a Trump-endorsed primary challenger in Louisiana, was more forthcoming: “The best I can tell you is he’s not qualified.” Even Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters “we don’t need a weaponized DNI.”
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The appointment also threatens to drag the Senate into a broader fight over surveillance authority. Punchbowl News reported on Wednesday that the White House had already signaled to top Republicans that Aaron Lukas — whom Trump had named acting DNI just 12 days earlier — would remain in that role for an extended period. Trump’s selection of Pulte puts a live grenade on the table in the middle of one of the few bipartisan legislative efforts still functioning in this Congress, as Democrats are already warning that his elevation could jeopardize the fragile Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reauthorization process.
Trump has long relied on acting officials to bypass Senate confirmation fights. The strategy allows him to install loyalists quickly while avoiding prolonged scrutiny of their qualifications. Acting officials can wield significant authority despite never receiving congressional approval. During Trump’s first term, Richard Grenell used his chaotic three-month stint to fire career officials, radically restructure the office and declassify documents regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election — a scorched-earth blitz that so alienated lawmakers he could never have been confirmed. Pulte may have the opportunity to do the same.
According to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, Pulte secured the appointment through the time-honored tradition of sycophancy — and becoming what the publication called “Little Trump.” In private conversations with the president, he aggressively made the case that he would be an “unyielding advocate” for Trump’s foreign policy agenda, explicitly signaling his eager support for the war in Iran. But the more illuminating detail emerged from Semafor: longtime Trump ally Roger Stone pushed hard for Pulte in the hopes he would use the DNI’s declassification powers to release documents supporting conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election. Meanwhile, right-wing reporter John Solomon will join the Trump administration to work on “transparency” issues related to the 2016 and 2020 elections, the New York Times reported on Friday.
What Pulte’s appointment makes unmistakably clear is that Trump does not view the DNI as a national security position. He views it as a political enforcement position — an office equipped with the most sensitive information and intrusive surveillance capabilities in the government, available to be turned inward against his enemies.
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