Trump Names Housing Chief Bill Pulte Acting Director Of National Intelligence
Bill Pulte is set to add a fourth job to his portfolio in the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump named Pulte the acting director of national intelligence in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday morning. In addition to the new job, Pulte will remain in his existing positions of director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and chairman of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Pulte has “deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America” as well as overseeing the “safety and soundness” of the nation’s financial markets, Trump said in his post.
The FHFA has oversight authority over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as other government-sponsored entities that underpin the U.S. housing market. Pulte is expected to continue in that role while leading the intelligence services.
The appointment of Pulte comes after Tulsi Gabbard resigned from the national intelligence director job on May 22. Gabbard cited a desire to focus on her husband, who was recently diagnosed with bone cancer, as the reason for her resignation, which is effective June 30.
Trump previously said Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas would move into the acting director role following Gabbard's exit.
If Pulte is formally nominated for the position, he will need to be confirmed by the Senate to assume the full-time job.
Pulte has been a longtime online booster of the president and a major force at the FHFA since being confirmed in March 2025. Over the last 15 months, he reconfigured its boards of directors and fired dozens of staff, accusing some of fraud and leading some of the ousted employees to file a class-action lawsuit.
He has also been tasked with exploring the privatization of Fannie and Freddie, which have been government-owned since the Great Recession. Pulte and Trump spoke at varying points last year of different structures of a take-private transaction, but none has come to fruition, and investors have lost faith that any action will be taken.
Earlier this year, the FHFA finalized the repeal of a Biden-era regulatory framework that standardized and expanded reporting requirements meant to ensure the government was working to further equity in housing.
The rules rescinded by the FHFA conflicted with executive orders from Trump prohibiting programs and data analytics that focus on specific ethnic groups. The agency also said many of the regulations were duplicative of existing rules.
In December, the Government Accountability Office opened an investigation into Pulte after allegations from eight Senate Democrats that he abused his power as FHFA director to launch investigations into Federal Reserve Governors Lisa Cook and Jerome Powell, whom Trump has attacked over failure to lower interest rates.
