{"id":131511,"date":"2026-06-02T13:28:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T19:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trump-taps-housing-finance-director-pulte-as-acting-director-of-national-intelligence-after-gabba\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T14:54:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:54:21","slug":"trump-taps-housing-regulator-pulte-to-be-acting-director-of-national-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trump-taps-housing-regulator-pulte-to-be-acting-director-of-national-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump taps housing regulator Pulte to be acting director of national intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FILE
FILE – Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte walks outside the White House, Sept. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein, File)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump has tapped Bill Pulte<\/a>, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to serve as acting director of national intelligence \u2014 elevating a real estate scion with no clear national security credentials to a key post as the U.S. remains at war with Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump made the surprise announcement Tuesday on social media that Pulte would be replacing Tulsi Gabbard, the former Hawaii congresswoman who had served as the director of national intelligence. Trump said Pulte will keep his other positions even as he fills in for Gabbard, who resigned last month<\/a> after revealing her husband\u2019s cancer diagnosis.<\/p>\n

The Republican president cited Pulte’s work at the FHFA and his role as chair of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as indicating that his real estate work would overlap with the skills needed to coordinate 18 federal agencies tasked with aspects of foreign and domestic security.<\/p>\n

\u201cWilliam has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets,” Trump posted on Truth Social.<\/p>\n

Trump’s choice to elevate Pulte, who would also continue in his post at FHFA, shows how the president is putting a greater priority on loyalty to him, even as the Iran war has damaged Trump politically going into November’s midterm elections and raised concerns about the quality of advice that aides are giving to a president who has rewarded flattery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear what national security expertise Pulte brings to bear as the U.S. faces conflict in the Middle East, helps Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s assault and manages the emergence of artificial intelligence as a military tool<\/a>. But Pulte, who’s 38 years old, has been a frequent guest on Air Force One as Trump has traveled to Mar-a-Lago, his home and club in Palm Beach, Florida.<\/p>\n

On one such flight, the housing finance director stood in a doorway as Trump discussed with reporters the ballroom he\u2019s building<\/a> at the White House and handed Trump a series of renderings of the project that the president held up.<\/p>\n

Questions about Pulte’s experience<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several Senate Republicans reacted skeptically to Pulte\u2019s appointment, questioning whether the housing finance director has the experience necessary to oversee the intelligence agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need a weaponized DNI. We need professionals there,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota. “I\u2019m trying to get more information about the current state of their thinking about that position. And, again, if he\u2019s somebody they want in that position permanently, he\u2019s got, as you all know, a lengthy road ahead of him.\u201c<\/p>\n

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in response to questions about Pulte’s national security credentials: \u201cI have no observations on the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John Cornyn of Texas, all of whom are leaving the chamber after this year’s elections, joined the chorus of wariness against Pulte.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t seem qualified,\u201d Cassidy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see any evidence of qualifications for that job,\u201d said Cornyn, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we looked at his background for the current confirmation, I thought most of his experience was in the building industry,\u201d Tillis said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know he had any national security experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats noted that Pulte’s major qualification appeared to be his enthusiasm for fulfilling Trump’s requests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concern is not only that Mr. Pulte lacks the \u2018extensive national security experience\u2019 required by statute for the job, which was created after intelligence failures led to the deaths of thousands of Americans on 9\/11,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in a statement. \u201cIt is that he appears to have been selected precisely because the White House believes he will provide the narrative it wants, not the intelligence we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Pulte has been \u201cabusing his authority\u201d as the federal housing finance director and Trump is now “rewarding his lackey \u2014 who has no national security experience \u2014 with a perch atop our nation\u2019s intelligence community. What could go wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, the liberal consumer rights advocacy group, warned that Pulte was \u201cTrump’s hatchet man\u201d who would use the government against those Americans who object to the president’s actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlacing Pulte in this post would position him to use the nation\u2019s massive surveillance apparatus and police capacity to harass, intimidate and threaten the many, many people that Trump considers his enemies,” Weissman said.<\/p>\n

Pulte’s attacks on Trump foes<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the grandson of the founder of PulteGroup, one of the country’s largest homebuilders, Pulte has cut a combative streak<\/a> on social media and used his post at the FHFA to attack perceived opponents of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

His time overseeing mortgage finance has been linked with criminal referrals over allegations of mortgage fraud by public officials Trump sought to punish, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat; Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; and Lisa Cook, a board member of the Federal Reserve, who was nominated by a Democratic president, Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

The prosecution against James was dismissed<\/a> in November after a judge concluded that the prosecutor who filed the charges was illegally appointed. Other referrals made by Pulte, including against Schiff and Cook, have not yielded any criminal charges. Lawyers for both have denied any claims of wrongdoing<\/a>. But Trump did try to use the possibility of mortgage fraud as grounds for removing Cook from the Fed.<\/p>\n

Cook\u2019s lawyer accused Pulte of pursuing mortgage fraud on a partisan basis, focusing on Democrats and refusing to pursue similar allegations against Republicans.<\/p>\n

Pulte told reporters at the White House several months ago that he had also made criminal referrals regarding at least one Republican official, but he declined to provide the name.<\/p>\n

He has famously gone after then-Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting the central bank\u2019s benchmark interest rates<\/a> as aggressively as the president wanted. He has also been linked to ideas such as the 50-year mortgage<\/a> and efforts to lower mortgage rates through the purchase of home loan debt that have not paid off as promised, as mortgage rates began to climb<\/a> after the Iran war started at the end of February.<\/p>\n

Pulte has a reputation for cultivating enemies. In a legal feud pursued by Pulte that involved his family namesake’s homebuilding company, he accused his grandfather\u2019s widow of insider trading. He was believed to be the driving force behind a website trashing an aunt as a \u201cfake Christian.\u201d And he publicly blasted another relative as \u201ca fat slob,\u201d \u201cweirdo\u201d and \u201cgrifter,\u201d according to court records.<\/p>\n

Politico reported in September that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened to punch Pulte in the face. The showdown occurred at a private dinner, and the treasury secretary claimed that he had heard Pulte had been badmouthing him to Trump.<\/p>\n

If formally nominated, Pulte would need to be confirmed by the Senate to hold the position full-time.<\/p>\n

In his first term, Trump at various points had acting officials leading the Justice and Defense departments and in top posts at Homeland Security and the Interior.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

\"FILE
FILE – Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte speaks with reporters at the White House, Sept. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein, FIle)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein, FIle)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"FILE
FILE – Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, July 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Alex Brandon, File)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Alex Brandon, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

– Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte walks outside the White House, Sept. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein, File)(AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein, File) WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump has tapped Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to serve as acting director of national intelligence \u2014 elevating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-131511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131511"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131589,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131511\/revisions\/131589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131511"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=131511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}