President Trump just named Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte as his new acting Director of National Intelligence, replacing the outgoing Tulsi Gabbard — and the collective meltdown from the left tells you everything you need to know about whether this was the right call.
Because nothing terrifies Democrats more than a guy who already knows where the bodies are buried in their mortgage records. The horror.
Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, praising Pulte's track record and making it clear this wasn't a consolation prize. "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," Trump wrote. He also praised Gabbard for doing an "incredible job" and said the administration will "miss her."
Gabbard told Trump on May 22 that she needed to step down from the DNI role in order to support her husband, who was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer. Her resignation takes effect June 30. Whatever you think of Gabbard's tenure — and she did push major declassification efforts and intelligence community reforms — that's a family-first decision we can all respect.
But here's where it gets fun. Pulte isn't some bureaucratic placeholder warming a chair until Trump finds a permanent nominee. This is the guy who, as FHFA Director and chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has been launching investigations into Trump's political opponents over mortgage fraud allegations. We're talking about referrals involving Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, and former Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer immediately took to X to call Pulte "a partisan thug with no experience in intelligence." Which is rich coming from Chuck Schumer, a man whose entire career has been an exercise in partisan thuggery dressed up in reading glasses and a press conference. Pulte has been overseeing over $10 trillion in assets at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But sure, Chuck — he's just some random guy off the street.
The left's real problem isn't Pulte's résumé. It's that Trump is running the executive branch like a CEO who actually fires underperformers and promotes people who get results. Aaron Lukas, the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, had previously been designated as acting DNI. Trump looked at the bench and said, "Nah, I want my guy." That's called leadership.
Pulte will retain his FHFA director role while serving as acting DNI, which means he'll have one foot in housing finance and the other in the intelligence community. Democrats will scream about conflicts of interest. The rest of us will note that a guy who already caught "faithful public servants" allegedly lying on mortgage applications might be exactly who you want reading intelligence briefings.
As Blaze News reported, the appointment has Democrats terrified that Pulte will use the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to go after Trump's political enemies. Translation: they're afraid someone competent is now sitting on top of 18 intelligence agencies with a flashlight and a bad attitude.
Good. Maybe it's time the intelligence community had a boss who isn't afraid to ask uncomfortable questions. Trump keeps reshuffling the deck, and every time he does, the same people panic. That's not a bug — that's the feature.