Trump names housing chief Bill Pulte as acting intelligence director, drawing bipartisan criticism over lack of experience

The appointment

President Donald Trump named Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), as acting director of national intelligence on Tuesday. Pulte, 38, succeeds Tulsi Gabbard, who announced last month she would resign effective June 30, citing her husband's rare bone cancer diagnosis. Trump praised Pulte on Truth Social for having "vast experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the markets, and over $10 trillion at Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac."

Pulte will retain his existing roles as FHFA director and chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while overseeing the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the rest of the US intelligence community. Under federal law, he can serve up to 210 days without Senate confirmation, a window that would carry him through the November midterm elections.

A loyalist with no intelligence background

Pulte is the grandson of the founder of PulteGroup, one of the nation's largest home-building companies, and served on its board for about four years before fellow members pushed him out. His housing portfolio outside the family business consists of several small mobile home parks in Florida and a number of single-family rental homes. He has no military, congressional, diplomatic, or law enforcement experience.

He has spent no time in the military, no time in Congress, no time in the diplomatic corps, no time in law enforcement. This is an insult.

At the FHFA, Pulte used his position to pressure investigations into several alleged Trump adversaries over mortgage fraud suspicions. He publicly accused Democratic Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James of falsifying mortgage documents. He also pursued a mortgage fraud case against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, which Trump sought to use as grounds for her dismissal; that case is now before the Supreme Court. None of these efforts have resulted in criminal charges to date.

Republican pushback

Senate Majority Leader John Thune delivered a pointed assessment of the appointment.

We don't need a weaponized DNI, we need professionals there.

Thune added that if the White House wants Pulte in the job permanently, "he's got a lengthy road ahead of him." Senator John Cornyn said he saw "no qualification whatsoever for the job."

The pushback is part of a broader pattern of friction between Thune and the president. In recent weeks, Thune has publicly opposed Trump's proposed $1.78 billion "anti-weaponization" fund, refused to fire the Senate parliamentarian at Trump's demand, and expressed disappointment when Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Senator Cornyn in the Texas Republican primary. The Wall Street Journal reported that Pulte has earned the nickname "Little Trump" for his unquestioning execution of the president's demands, often presenting ideas to Trump on large poster boards during weekend visits to the president's golf courses.

Housing agenda in limbo

Pulte's tenure at the FHFA has been marked by staff shake-ups and few tangible results. He fired large groups of employees, cut or merged teams focused on fair-lending enforcement and climate risk, and de-emphasized Fannie and Freddie's mission of expanding homeownership to underserved populations. He canceled support for a program aimed at people of color and lowered targets for the share of loans to low-income home buyers that the mortgage giants try to acquire.

It suggests that, for the time being anyway, any efforts that require a heavy lift from F.H.F.A. will have to wait.

An early decision to have Fannie and Freddie buy hundreds of billions of dollars more in mortgage securities brought some initial success in lowering rates, but home prices have remained stubbornly high. Pulte had also been working on an IPO of the government-sponsored mortgage financiers, a project that the Washington Post reported was stalling partly due to the staff departures. With his new intelligence role, that effort now appears unlikely to advance.

Democratic reaction

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren reacted sharply on X.

Trump rewards his stooge by making him head of our intelligence community. What could possibly go wrong?

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Pulte was unqualified given worldwide threats. At a White House press briefing, Mehmet Oz, the administration's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, declined to answer multiple questions about Pulte's qualifications, saying only that "Bill is a super guy." Vice President JD Vance called Pulte "a super guy who knows that the bureaucracy in the intelligence community must answer to elected officials (rather than the other way around)."

1. Jan 20, 2025Trump begins second term; Pulte appointed FHFA director and chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
2. May 1, 2025Pulte begins pursuing mortgage fraud investigations against Trump political adversaries including Schiff, James, and Fed Governor Cook
3. Mar 1, 2026US enters war with Iran; Pulte reportedly promises Trump full support for the president's foreign policy vision
4. May 15, 2026Tulsi Gabbard announces resignation as DNI effective June 30, citing husband's cancer diagnosis
5. Jun 2, 2026Trump names Pulte acting director of national intelligence; Pulte retains all housing roles
6. Nov 3, 2026Midterm elections; Pulte's 210-day acting window expires around this date without Senate confirmation

The Iran dimension

Pulte's appointment comes as the US is engaged in a war with Iran that began in March, a conflict that has become controversial even within Republican ranks. According to the Wall Street Journal, Pulte promised Trump he would support the president's foreign policy vision and back the Iran war effort. Media reports had previously indicated that outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard's relationship with Trump had frayed over disagreements about the Iran conflict.