President Donald Trump’s decision to appoint a loyal ally with zero intelligence experience to lead the US intelligence community has sparked outrage within his own party. William John Pulte, a 38-year-old real estate heir and Trump donor, has been named Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI), a role he will hold part-time while continuing to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
A Middle Finger to the Senate
“It’s a middle finger to the Senate. A f**k you to the Deep State,” declared Make America Great Again (MAGA) kingpin Steve Bannon. “The White House staff hates him because they can’t control him.” Pulte’s appointment comes less than two weeks after incumbent Tulsi Gabbard announced she would leave her post at the end of the month. Like Gabbard, Pulte has no experience in national security, foreign policy, terrorism, or covert operations. But he possesses one overriding quality: loyalty.
Controversial Track Record
Pulte’s tenure at FHFA has been marked by headline-grabbing controversies targeting Trump’s political foes. He accused dozens of senior government finance agency employees of fraud and summarily dismissed them without evidence. He pursued a criminal probe of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for refusing to slash interest rates. He also used mortgage records to accuse New York Attorney-General Letitia James, California Senator Adam Schiff, and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook of fraud, though no charges were filed and the cases were dismissed as attempts to “criminalise paperwork errors.”
Part-Time Intelligence Chief
Pulte will not leave FHFA but will take on the part-time role of intelligence chief, giving him access to counter-terrorism and international spy agency surveillance data. He can influence agency operations and plans. This comes as President Trump redefines terrorism to cover a broad swath of American society.
Culture Warrior
“The danger is not that Pulte will personally redirect US intelligence collection overnight. It is that an acting DNI could help normalise the use of intelligence language itself for domestic political purposes,” warns retired CIA executive Brian O’Neill. “Election disputes, protest movements, and ideological communities need not be formally labelled threats to be damaged by the suggestion that national security agencies are watching them.” President Trump has repeated his discredited claim that the 2020 election was “stolen” more than 100 times in the past six months. In May, the Trump administration released a new counter-terrorism strategy that omitted traditional threats like the mafia and neo-Nazis, instead targeting anti-fascist organisations (antifa), transgender activists, and “violent left wing extremists.”
Retribution Man
In February, Trump instructed the CIA and other surveillance agencies to work with his personal lawyer, Kurt Olsen, who previously led the “Stop the Steal” campaign. Outgoing DNI Gabbard personally attended a raid on an election office in Fulton County, Georgia, initiated by Olsen. Pulte’s appointment is likely to produce further assistance. “It will cause worry amongst intelligence community professionals that the DNI will be fully weaponised in support of going after Trump’s political enemies, given Pulte’s track record,” said former senior CIA analyst Marc Polymeropoulos.
Deepest of the Deep State
President Trump has long viewed intelligence and security agencies as the “deepest of the deep state.” He vowed to “clean out all of the corrupt actors in our national security and intelligence apparatus.” The DNI role is a tool to combat that. Federal law requires the DNI to have “extensive national security experience,” but that didn’t stop Republicans from approving Gabbard, who had military police experience but no intelligence background. Trump has a history of appointing “acting” heads to bypass Senate confirmation. Pulte’s prior acceptance as FHFA head is being used to avoid approval for the DNI role.
Republican Backlash
Non-MAGA Republicans have expressed disquiet. Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune proclaimed, “We don’t need a weaponised DNI, we need professionals there.” High-profile Republican Mitch McConnell added, “Very few Senate-confirmable positions come with statutory eligibility requirements. There are good reasons why the DNI is one of them.” Even some MAGA allies are unhappy. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who previously had a heated confrontation with Pulte, said, “I spoke with Director Pulte yesterday and congratulated him … and wished him luck as he gets up to speed in DNI and told him we have several pressing issues on Iran.”
Former Defence Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta warned, “This is a dangerous world we live in with a lot of flashpoints … threats from Russia, China, North Korea, a war in Iran. Pulte is somebody who has largely targeted people that the president did not get along with and was part of the president’s retribution system.”
