Trump Hands the Keys to National Intelligence to a Real Estate Loyalist With Zero Qualifications Except Digging Up Dirt on His Enemies

Donald Trump wasted no time finding a replacement to the director of national intelligence after Tulsi Gabbard resigned. As with Gabbard, Trump’s criteria for the job are not any actual experience or qualifications, but slavish personal loyalty and a willingness to go after his enemies. So he picked Bill Pulte, formerly the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a man arguably even less qualified than his predecessor.

Pulte’s main claim to fame is that he feverishly rummaged through the mortgage records of Trump’s political enemies so that the administration could target them. Pulte proved himself useful in one of Trump’s most important initiatives: retaliating against critics and those who have tried to hold him accountable—people like New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff of California, and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

NBC News reports:

As acting director of national intelligence, Pulte will be the highest-ranking intelligence official, overseeing 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.

Trump announced on social media that Pulte will remain as director of the housing finance agency, as well as chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government-sponsored enterprises created by Congress to support the mortgage market. …

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, slammed the decision, saying in a statement that Pulte was not only unqualified, but that he was chosen “precisely because the White House believes he will provide the narrative it wants, not the intelligence we need,” Warner said.

The job falls to Pulte to inform the most powerful person in the world what is actually true about the world. Trump has handed this role to someone whose most notable professional achievement is finding dirt in mortgage filings. The intelligence community’s animating purpose—providing the president with accurate info regardless of whether he wants to hear it—has just been placed under the supervision of a man selected precisely because he will not do that.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

© The UnPopulist, 2026

Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X.