Trump picks Bill Pulte as acting intelligence director

President Donald Trump on Tuesday tapped Bill Pulte, who leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to serve as acting director of national intelligence, replacing outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard.

Pulte, who has served as an attack dog against Trump’s foes, has no known prior intelligence experience.

But in his new role, he will oversee the sprawling U.S. intelligence community, which includes the CIA and National Security Agency.

Pulte at the same time will continue working as FHFA director and chairman of the mortgage groups Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post announcing the decision.

Democrats immediately condemned Pulte’s appointment, and the Senate’s top Republican also criticized the move.

“We don’t need a weaponized DNI, we need professionals there,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Thune said he is seeking more information from the Trump administration “about the current state of their thinking about that position.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in an X post called Pulte “a partisan thug with no experience in intelligence.”

“He is another unqualified Trump appointee that will make our country less safe. And you won’t hear a word from the Republicans who claim to care about national security,” Schumer said.

Trump had previously announced that Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas would take over as acting DNI after Gabbard, who was slated to depart June 30.

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for clarification on when Pulte’s tenure at DNI would begin, and whether Lukas would remain in his current role.

“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,” Trump wrote in his Truth Social post.

From his perch atop the normally low-profile housing regulatory agency, Pulte has spurred a firestorm of controversy by raising allegations of mortgage-related wrongdoing against several of Trump’s political opponents.

Pulte last year filed a criminal referral against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook for mortgage fraud based on Cook allegedly claiming two different properties as her primary residence at the same time.

Trump, who has long urged the Fed to lower interest rates and frequently complains about the central bank’s refusal to act accordingly, attempted to fire Cook based on the mortgage allegations.

Cook sued to stop her firing; her case is currently pending before the Supreme Court.

Pulte also submitted a criminal referral against New York Attorney General Letitia James on allegations of falsifying bank documents and property records in connection with a home mortgage she obtained in 2020.

James was charged in October with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. In November, a federal judge dismissed her case after ruling that the interim U.S. attorney who brought the indictment, former Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan, was invalidly appointed.

Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said in a statement that Pulte’s appointment “speaks volumes about what this president expects from the nation’s top intelligence official.”

“The concern is not only that Mr. Pulte lacks the ‘extensive national security experience’ required by statute for the job,” Warner said. “It 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.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, said Pulte has spent his time at FHFA “abusing his authority to attack the President’s perceived political enemies, prompting the congressional watchdog to investigate his handling of sensitive financial information.”

“Today, President Trump is rewarding his lackey — who has no national security experience — with a perch atop our nation’s intelligence community. What could go wrong?” she said in a statement.

Gabbard told Trump on May 22 that she had to step down as DNI in order to support her husband following his diagnosis of “an extremely rare form of bone cancer.”

— CNBC’s Garrett Downs contributed to this report.