Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Trump’s pick to head US intelligence is way worse than Tulsi Gabbard

Trump’s pick to head US intelligence is way worse than Tulsi Gabbard

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/6/2/800049166/whitehouse/trumps-pick-to-head-us-intelligence-is-way-worse-than-tulsi-gabbard/ 

Trump’s pick to head US intelligence is way worse than Tulsi Gabbard

by Emily Singer
Staff
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FILE - Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte, speaks to reporters at the White House, July 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
APDirector of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte, who is Trump’s new pick to head National Intelligence.

When Tulsi Gabbard announced she was stepping down as director of National Intelligence a little over a week ago, many let out sighs of relief that a Vladimir Putin apologist was no longer in control of the country’s spy agencies.

But it was likely that President Donald Trump would replace her with someone even worse. On Tuesday, he confirmed that to be the case, when he announced that he was appointing Bill Pulte—the current head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency—as acting director of National Intelligence.

“I am appointing the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and Chairman of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, William J. Pulte, to serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “William has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets, and over 10 Trillion Dollars at Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, a substantial increase from where it was just 12 months ago. During this period, he will remain Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and Chairman of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. Congratulations to Director Pulte!”

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)
APFormer Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard speaks with reporters at the White House, July 23, 2025, in Washington.

Pulte’s appointment as acting director is, to put it lightly, a nightmare.

For one, he has zero—we cannot stress that enough—national intelligence experience. Instead, he’s a nepo baby heir to a residential home construction company. How that makes him qualified to lead the country’s spy agencies is just beyond comprehension.

But worse than that, he is an election denier who as head of the FHFA has used his powers not to help people obtain affordable housing but rather to carry out Trump’s revenge tour.

Pulte was the one behind the attempts to jail Trump’s perceived enemies on bogus mortgage fraud charges. He pushed the Department of Justice to indict New York Attorney General Tish James on baseless mortgage fraud charges—charges that were thrown out by a federal judge. When the DOJ tried to seek charges against James again, a grand jury refused to indict her, something that happens so rarely people joke that a grand jury could indict a ham sandwich. 

APPulte is known for trying to unsuccessfully indict New York Attorney General Letitia James twice.

Pulte didn’t stop there, however. He also referred Rep. Adam Schiff—the California Democrat who successfully led the efforts to impeach Trump twice—to the DOJ to be investigated for mortgage fraud. 

And Trump relied on yet another bullshit Pulte “investigation” when he attempted to fire Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook, whose firing has been halted by federal courts as she challenges her dismissal.

“Thank you President Trump for your commitment to stopping mortgage fraud and following the law,” Pulte wrote in a post on X after Trump announced he was firing Cook. “If you commit mortgage fraud in America, we will come after you, no matter who you are.”

Most frightening of all, as DNI Pulte would now control the country’s spy agencies, giving him the power to use them against Trump’s enemies rather than the actual enemies of the United States who pose a threat to all Americans.

“The biggest news isn’t that Trump is appointing someone without a national security background to a position that, by law, requires ‘extensive’ experience. It’s that Pulte earned Trump’s trust by using **mortgage** records to pursue perceived political enemies,” Ned Price, a former U.S. intelligence official under former President Joe Biden, wrote in a post on X. “Now this top henchman will have access to some of our most sensitive intelligence and exquisite capabilities. That’s why this is so noteworthy—and concerning.”

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Americans should be worried about Pulte’s appointment.

“Americans have every reason to worry about what happens when the official charged with overseeing everything from counterterrorism to foreign election threats is chosen for his willingness to advance the president’s political agenda rather than his experience,” Warner wrote in a post on X. “That is how intelligence becomes politicized, how inconvenient facts disappear, how agencies charged with protecting our democracy instead become tools to manipulate it, and how Americans are left more vulnerable to a terrorist attack.”

In fact, Pulte’s appointment is so bad that even Republicans are criticizing it.

“Bill Pulte is one of the worst members of the President’s team and has convinced Trump to do more stupid stuff than anyone else in the past year. He’ll be driven to work in a very short bus each day,” right-wing radio host Erick Erickson wrote in a post on X.

Jonah Goldberg, a conservative commentator, echoed those sentiments. “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,” Goldberg wrote in a post on X.

Lord help us. 

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  1. Comment by captcartoon.

    The law (50 U.S.C. § 3023) explicitly states: "Any individual nominated for appointment as Director of National Intelligence shall have extensive national security expertise."

    The DNI role involves:

    • Leading the U.S. Intelligence Community (18 agencies, including CIA, NSA, FBI intelligence elements, etc.).

    • Serving as the President's principal intelligence advisor.

    • Overseeing budgets, priorities, analysis, and coordination on threats like terrorism, cyberattacks, foreign adversaries (China, Russia, Iran), proliferation, etc.

    • Managing a massive bureaucracy with high-stakes decisions on collection, declassification, and interagency disputes.

    Right. Lawsuit, anyone?

    • Reply by PQuincy2014.

      Why, no! Our distinguished Supreme Court (which is really looking forward to its billionaire-funded luxury travel this summer) will point out that none of us has the standing to sue over this action, since no "normal American" has anything at stake, only "radical left-wing lunatics". And anyway, the royal prerogative, er, unitary executive power includes the total power to hire and fire any public servant in any office in the United States. Why, the current presidential incumbent is considering firing the governors of California, Kentucky, Illinois, right now, and appointing their successors, and the Supreme Court is just letting him know that that's _totally_ OK and constitutional ,right.

      So stop your bickering and fussing, and go ahead and buy that gold Rump phone!

      [end snark... but alas, it has not ended]

  2. Comment by ccrockett52.

    Senator Warner, what will you do to protect Americans from this grossly unqualified appointment? "Worry" does not capture the degree to which you and your fellow Senators, Democrats and Republicans combined, will block his nomination and stop this corrupt train from delivering more authoritarian crap than it has already proven to have delivered. I will feel encouraged if and when the blockage occurs, not when it is so easy to comment about your degree of worry...

  3. Comment by yogibear1963.

    Trump's goal is to create a crisis everyday and have the media focus on that rather than his own crimes and the pedophile files.

    And we fall for it.

  4. Comment by cosmo666.

    the good news is he likely can't find his ass with a compass, but that is also the bad news

  5. Comment by cosmo666.

    I see major and subtle forms of civil disobedience on the horizon from career CIA officers. They are not going to want to answer to this dildo

  6. Comment by Paul C.

    Don't these right wing commentators understand that awful appointments are being made by the President? They don't just "happen".

  7. Comment by Thutmose V.

    One person holding multiple jobs is a sign of dictatorship. It indicates the primary duty of that person is loyalty to the dictator.

    • Reply by Paul C.

      Sounds a lot like Jared Kushner.

  8. Comment by fargap.

    Geez, the guy is only 38. Apparently, hating everybody but fellow white meatheads is not a geroprotector.

  9. Comment by ArchieMander.

    Well, Pulte kind of look like a Russian thug. Soon he'll be sent to Moscow for training

  10. Comment by ShoveABirdUpIt.

    It's Dynamo! Perfect that Trump's henchmen are right out of bad 80's action movies...

    Dynamo from the 1987 The Running Man

    • Reply by Truth Will Out.

      😳😳 😗🍆

    • Reply by Paul C.

      He's even got the same tinfoil hat!

    • Reply by HeyOttist.

      Nailed it! But I have to add that "Running Man" is actually an AWESOME bad 80's action movie... and in a lot of ways very relevant to today's political sh** show.

  11. Comment by strawbale.

    Dafuq does finance have to do with Intelligence, Donnie?

  12. Comment by UKPrince46.

    Here's another amazing fact... should Democrats ever win the presidency and appoint an AG, even he/she will NOT investigate Pulte for mortgage fraud... or any other kind of fraud, because we MIGHT be accused by the trump republicans (one in the same) of "politicing" the DOJ... and we wouldn't want that now, would we! Even if Pulte himself said: “If you commit mortgage fraud in America, we will come after you, no matter who you are.”

    On 2nd thought, if the Democratic appointed AG is a woman, all bets are off. As the late, great Betty White said: "Why do people say "grow some balls"? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding."

    • Reply by Eholburt.

      I want a president who says the greatest joy in my life is making Republicans upset.

    • Reply by Truth Will Out.

      I’d say it is wrong to stoop to their level, except the best way (it seems) to upset republicans is to do great things for the voters and the country. Turns out it is sorta a win/win.

    • Reply by Eholburt.

      Biden did great things for the country and the public turned on him. Biden’s green investments were heavily invested in red America. The only way to make this country better is to go after those who made it worse. We didn’t prosecute the higher levels of people involved in the coup, making them feel untouchable. A special prosecutor should have been retained for Thomas and Alito for tax fraud and bribery.

  13. Comment by DrBoomer.

    Perfect choice: perfect loyalty, perfect malevolence, perfect arrogance, perfect perfidy!

    His only downside is he has no experience selling state secrets. He'll learn.

  14. Comment by outsight.

    Pulte is just another bag man on the key chain for Trump. Gabbard was the key bag man for Putin. Our Russia assets are most all dead and buried, and our signals capabilities were mostly exposed, all due to Trump and Gabbard. Our intelligence capabilities couldn't be any worse at present, and will take decades to recover. I find pathetic, part-time Pulte to be a big step up, honestly.

  15. Comment by Lefty Coaster.

    Trump has a whole costume shop full of villains to fabricate from.

  16. Comment by kamachanda.

    In Trump's defense, Vladimir Putin turned down the job offer.

  17. Comment by sfmikey1.

    I've been told, you should never judge a book by its cover. But sometimes, you can. Just look at this guy's face; you know he's a meathead.

    • Reply by DrBoomer.

      "Dead from the neck up!"

  19. Comment by NotMatterId.

    Let's not be alarm'd; never need be scared!

    Trump is so fragile, weak, spinless an' scared his own self for us to even consider the adoption of any of his, um, qualities. Especially his negative quals - which are numerous an' extremely unsat.

    He's surround'd himself with his rectum osculators. He's so delicate that he demands loyalty, blind loyalty over qualified or decent personnel... good, apt candidates need not apply.

  20. Comment by ann mcdonald.

    This is one bad, ugly dude!!!!!!!!

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