Pulte Leads Intelligence
Trump Appoints Housing Finance Director Pulte as Acting Director of National Intelligence
President Trump has tapped Bill Pulte, the 38-year-old director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to serve as acting Director of National Intelligence, according to AP. The announcement came on June 2 via Truth Social, bypassing Aaron Lukas, the career intelligence professional who had been initially named as the interim replacement for Tulsi Gabbard.
Gabbard resigned effective June 30, citing her husband's diagnosis with a rare form of bone cancer, CBS News reported. Pulte is now set to oversee 18 U.S. intelligence agencies while simultaneously running the federal agency that manages roughly $10 trillion in mortgage assets.
A Mortgage Regulator Takes the Intelligence Reins
Pulte, a grandson of PulteGroup's founder, was confirmed as FHFA director in March 2025 at age 38. He has no traditional background in intelligence, military command, or diplomacy. Trump defended the pick on Truth Social, arguing that Pulte's oversight of $10 trillion in assets gives him "deep experience managing the most sensitive matters," according to The Independent.
The appointment is legally possible under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, which lets the president name a Senate-confirmed official from another agency to fill a vacancy for up to 210 days, CBS News reported. Critics note the law does not require the appointee to have any relevant expertise.
Pulte Used Housing Agency to Target Political Opponents
Since his March 2025 confirmation, Pulte turned the normally quiet FHFA into a vehicle for political investigations. He used federal housing records to send criminal referrals to the Justice Department against New York AG Letitia James, Senator Adam Schiff, and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, alleging mortgage fraud. All three denied the claims, CBS News reported.
Senator Elizabeth Warren and other critics accused Pulte of "weaponizing" the FHFA to target the president's rivals. That concern has grown louder now that he will oversee the nation's entire spy apparatus, according to SF Gate.
Intelligence Veterans and Markets React With Alarm
Experts in the intelligence community described the appointment as "highly unorthodox," pointing to a "fundamental mismatch" between Pulte's corporate background and the demands of tracking global terror networks and cyber threats, according to Greenwich Time. Career officials also fear intelligence resources could be turned toward domestic political targets.
Financial analysts focused on a different risk. Pulte had been pushing to relist Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on public stock markets — a move that drove Fannie Mae shares up 51% in March 2026. Governance experts now question whether Pulte can manage a round-the-clock intelligence job while also overseeing a high-stakes privatization of the mortgage giants, Seattle PI noted.
Gabbard Leaves After 16 Months of Dismantling DEI Programs
Gabbard, the former Hawaii congresswoman, spent 16 months as DNI focused on eliminating DEI programs inside intelligence agencies and declassifying records tied to the Trump-Russia investigation, CT Post reported. Her departure was described as personal rather than political, driven by her husband Abraham Williams' cancer diagnosis.
Trump initially named Lukas, the Principal Deputy DNI and a career intelligence professional, as the expected acting director. The June 2 Truth Social post naming Pulte instead caught many officials off guard, ABC 27 reported.
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