Trump picks mortgage chief Bill Pulte to lead on national intelligence

Pulte, head of a mortgage regulation agency and a loyalist to President Donald Trump, will replace Tulsi Gabbard, who is leaving as director of national intelligence.

June 2, 2026 at 10:09 a.m. EDT29 minutes ago

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Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, speaks to reporters at the White House last year. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)

By Warren P. Strobel

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced he was appointing Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence, tapping a staunch political supporter who heads a federal mortgage regulation agency but has no intelligence experience.

In selecting Pulte for the intelligence czar post, Trump turned to a reliable political ally who was a leading voice for ousting then-Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell and who has pursued mortgage fraud accusations against the president’s Democratic foes.

Pulte will replace, at least temporarily, Tulsi Gabbard, who announcedher resignation last month, saying she was leaving the administration to attend to her husband after he was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer. Gabbard said in her resignation letter that she intended to stay in the position through June 30.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, “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.”

Pulte, he said, will remain director of the FHFA and chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-supported agencies that assist home buying and mortgage liquidity.

The director of national intelligence oversees and coordinates 18 U.S. spy agencies but has no operational role in covert intelligence-gathering programs.