He currently runs the Federal Housing Finance Agency. He has spent his career in housing and finance. He has no background in intelligence, espionage, or national security.
Now, he will be the highest-ranking intelligence official in the United States.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday named Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence, replacing Tulsi Gabbard, who announced she would resign at the end of the month due to her husband’s cancer diagnosis. Pulte will oversee a vast network of 18 agencies, including the CIA and the National Security Agency. He will also be the president’s principal adviser on intelligence issues and will manage the daily intelligence briefing for the president.
The move allows Trump to bypass Senate confirmation, at least for now. And it has Democrats sounding alarms.
Who Is Bill Pulte?
Pulte is currently the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In that position, he has helped the Trump administration compile information to fuel investigations into the president’s perceived political enemies.
In March, he made two criminal referrals against New York Attorney General Letitia James, alleging insurance fraud. In May 2025, Pulte sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department for Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., over mortgage fraud allegations that Schiff denied and that ultimately stalled. Two months later, House Democrats asked an inspector general to investigate Pulte over mortgage fraud allegations he made against Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, accusations she has denied.
A former Democratic congressman, Eric Swalwell, sued Pulte, alleging that he used his position to “concoct fanciful allegations of mortgage fraud” against him. Swalwell dropped the suit in March.
Pulte was also a driving force behind the controversy around the Federal Reserve headquarters renovation, which Trump has suggested has been mired with issues and has necessitated an investigation into former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Two previous reviews by the Fed’s independent inspector general found no wrongdoing.
Why Does This Matter?
The director of national intelligence was created after 9/11 to coordinate the sprawling US intelligence community. The position is Cabinet-level and traditionally requires Senate confirmation. By naming Pulte in an acting capacity, Trump bypasses that process.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, slammed the decision. Pulte was not only unqualified, Warner said, but he was chosen “precisely because the White House believes he will provide the narrative it wants, not the intelligence we need.”
That should worry Americans, Warner said. “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.”
The Pattern
This is not the first time Trump has installed a loyalist with no intelligence background to lead the spy agencies. During his first term, he tapped Richard Grenell, his ambassador to Germany, to serve in the job in an acting capacity. Grenell served about three months before the Senate confirmed a permanent replacement.
Trump announced the decision in a social media post, saying Pulte had “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.”
Pulte will remain as director of the housing finance agency, as well as chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while serving as acting intelligence chief. He will also take over from Gabbard, who has kept a low profile since the US and Israel launched an air campaign against Iran on February 28.
Gabbard lacked major influence in the administration and was not part of Trump’s inner circle, according to multiple sources. She also clashed with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who has enjoyed a closer relationship with the president.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he had just heard about the decision. “Trying to get more information about the current state of their thinking about that position, and again, if he’s somebody that wants that position permanently, he’s got, as you all know, a lengthy road ahead of him,” Thune said.
The Bottom Line
President Trump has named Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting director of national intelligence. Pulte has no intelligence background. He has, however, targeted Trump’s political enemies with criminal referrals and allegations that have not stuck. Democrats say he is unqualified and was chosen to politicize intelligence. Trump is bypassing Senate confirmation by naming him in an acting capacity. Pulte replaces Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned due to her husband’s illness. He will oversee 18 spy agencies, including the CIA and NSA, while remaining head of the housing finance agency and chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
