June 2, 2026
Why should you care that President Trump just appointed this guy — Bill Pulte — to be the acting Director of National Intelligence?
Well, all I can do is report the facts, and the facts are not adding up here. And when that happens, I think it’s worth taking a look. Because even Republicans on Capitol Hill are like, what?
Before I explain what you need to know about this eyebrow-raising appointment, you need to know the Director of National Intelligence, or DNI, is a very important job.
The DNI is a member of the president’s cabinet who leads more than a dozen agencies that make up the United States intelligence community, including the CIA, NSA, FBI, and all the intelligence agencies embedded in every branch of our military.
The DNI has the legal authority to direct intelligence gathering and analysis and can set policy for intelligence sharing with other foreign governments and agencies. The DNI is also responsible for overseeing any kind of intelligence whistleblower investigation and protecting critical intelligence sources.
The DNI is appointed by the president and must be confirmed by the Senate. When Congress created the role of DNI, lawmakers said that “any individual nominated for appointment as Director of National Intelligence shall have extensive national security expertise.”
All of the previous DNIs have been former military intelligence officers or career intelligence officers within the U.S. government. And while her nomination was controversial because of her lack of intelligence experience, Trump’s current DNI, Tulsi Gabbard, at least had military experience as an officer in the Army Reserve and experience as a member of Congress serving on the committee that was directly responsible for overseeing military intelligence and counterterrorism operations.
And that leads me to Bill Pulte.
Bill Pulte has absolutely no intelligence background that we know of whatsoever. Pulte is currently serving as the director of President Trump’s Federal Housing Finance Agency. As director, Pulte named himself chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government agencies that stabilize the U.S. mortgage market.
Before that, he was involved in his family’s very large construction company, and he himself founded a private equity firm. He was also a huge donor to the Republican Party and to President Trump’s campaign.
So that’s where things aren’t adding up. Why would President Trump appoint a man with no known intelligence background to a critically important intelligence role while the United States is actively involved in a war in Iran and tensions are high with China?
The answer is: What if Trump’s focus isn’t abroad? What if Trump’s focus is closer to home?
See, while Tulsi Gabbard was DNI, she used her official intelligence resources to reframe the narrative on several things that were important to the president, which is not normally what the DNI does.
In July of last year, she declassified documents she said exposed the “Russia hoax” against President Trump, trying to argue that it was all manufactured to make him look bad. Then in April of this year, she said she found more never-before-seen documents that she says also backed up Trump’s claim that the effort to impeach him the first time was manufactured.
But then she started up on the president’s main gripe: the 2020 presidential election, which he has argued, with no evidence, was stolen from him.
Remember, we saw Gabbard in Georgia in her official capacity as DNI as the FBI was pulling boxes of ballots out of the Fulton County Elections Office. The DNI has no legal authority to be there or to conduct domestic intelligence gathering. But Gabbard said Trump directed her to be there.
Well, that DNI investigation into the 2020 election is not over yet. And then, out of nowhere, Gabbard resigned a week and a half ago. And now Pulte is going to be taking over all of that.
It’s important for you to know that since Pulte has been director of that housing agency, his claim to fame has not been to help you get a mortgage or help you buy a home. His claim to fame has been to go after Trump’s enemies.
He has used his office and the information he’s gathered from it to refer New York Attorney General Letitia James for criminal prosecution for alleged mortgage fraud, which she denies.
Then, coincidentally, after Pulte took over the agency, President Trump claimed there were mortgage fraud allegations involving other Trump critics like Senator Adam Schiff and even Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. Both of them also deny any wrongdoing.
In December of this year, the Government Accountability Office opened an investigation into Pulte after allegations that he abused his office to go after Trump’s enemies.
So, with no intelligence background but a lot of experience going after Trump’s political enemies — and an open investigation into him — Pulte is going to take over as DNI and will inherit all of the investigations Gabbard is leaving behind.
But we shouldn’t just look backward at the 2020 election investigation. We should also be looking forward and putting Pulte’s appointment into the context of the 2026 midterm elections and even the 2028 presidential election.
How will Pulte impact those events? Can he impact those things? Will he use the tools at the DNI’s disposal to shape the narrative around those events based on the truth of what actually happens or based on what the president wants the reality to be?
I guess we’ll have to wait and see, but we should all be paying attention to it based on what we’ve already seen from Pulte.
Now, unless there’s some serious backlash in Congress, Pulte is going to be the DNI at least through the November midterms. And because he was already confirmed by the Senate to serve as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, he does not need to be confirmed again to be acting DNI.
And according to the law, he can serve as acting DNI for 210 days from the date Tulsi Gabbard leaves.
Now, we’re already hearing concern on Capitol Hill about Pulte’s appointment. When asked whether he was concerned Pulte would use his new DNI post to help the president and his allies, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told several outlets:
“Well, we don’t need a weaponized DNI. We need professionals there.”
Read Trump’s announcement about Pulte here.
