Why Trump selected an acting director of national intelligence with no intel experience

By Kristen Holmes, Alayna Treene, Jeremy Herb, CNN

(CNN) — The behind-the-scenes jockeying began almost immediately after Tulsi Gabbard announced last month that she would resign as director of national intelligence.

Some allies told President Donald Trump he should replace Gabbard with someone who had more intelligence experience. Others said he should go with someone who held the same views on Iran. But for Trump, the most compelling argument that ultimately won out was picking someone who had shown a willingness to take on the establishment and the so-called “deep state” of the intelligence community, three sources familiar with the discussions described to CNN.

In Bill Pulte, Trump selected as his intelligence chief a loyalist with no demonstrated national security or intelligence experience. What he did have: a record of going after many of Trump’s biggest perceived political enemies through criminal referrals sent over the past year from his perch as Trump’s housing finance director.

One source said the decision was rooted in what Trump cares about most: Getting what he wants done — and quickly.

“Trump likes Tulsi, but she’s very methodical. She’s a thinker. Bill is a move-fast-and-break-things kind of guy,” the source said.

Pulte had made it clear to Trump that he wanted a bigger role and more responsibility within the administration, including the possibility of a Cabinet position should one become available, three sources told CNN. A separate source said he directly lobbied the president to lead DNI after Gabbard announced she was leaving.

Now Pulte, 38, a wealthy businessman-turned-director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, will have an even bigger platform to take on Trump’s biggest perceived grievances — from former intelligence chiefs like John Brennan and the assessment of Russia’s 2016 election interference to Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Multiple sources familiar with the decision told CNN that the rationale for the pick was simple: Trump liked what he saw from Pulte and believed he could potentially replicate it at DNI. Trump made his decision to put Pulte in the role Monday night, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

“This isn’t something to overthink — President Trump wanted someone in that position who is a true loyalist, who will do what he wants him to do. He has that in Bill,” one source close to Pulte told CNN. “Pulte speaks to the president more than anyone I know.”

Another source familiar with the matter said Trump floated the idea of Pulte as DNI with Gabbard in recent days, though he did not tell her when the announcement would be coming. Trump previously announced that Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas would become the acting director when Gabbard leaves her office on June 30.

Because Pulte has previously been confirmed by the Senate for another position, he’s eligible to perform in an acting role without further congressional approval.

“The President chooses the best and most talented people to serve in his Cabinet. That is why this Administration has achieved record successes for the American people. Bill Pulte is a great selection and he will do a great job on behalf of the American people,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement to CNN.

An election-focused loyalist

What’s perhaps most consequential about Trump tapping Pulte as acting director is that it puts a loyalist in a position to influence the president’s actions ahead of the midterm elections, which Trump has called for “nationalizing.” Some of the president’s allies have urged him to declare a national emergency to take control of the election — a move that experts have warned could be based on a spurious claim of foreign interference.

Gabbard, too, was involved in controversial election efforts, including seizing and testing voting machines in Puerto Rico last year and taking part in an FBI seizure of Fulton County’s 2020 ballots earlier this year.

“Who knows what he could use, manufacture, create,” Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said of Pulte. “We already saw it with Tulsi Gabbard going down and grabbing ballots. I think Pulte’s record in government so far makes Gabbard’s look relatively benign.”

As housing director, Pulte showed his eagerness to go after Trump’s perceived enemies. He sent the Justice Department criminal referrals on allegations of mortgage fraud against four Democrats who have pushed investigations into Trump: New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff, former Rep. Eric Swalwell and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. He also referred Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over similar fraud claims — allegations that Trump used to try to fire her.

All five people have denied Pulte’s mortgage fraud allegations, and only the probe into James resulted in charges, although they were later thrown out by a federal judge.

Pulte also was one of the most vocal Trump allies calling for the resignation of former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell last year — even spreading a false rumor with an FHFA press release suggesting that Powell’s resignation would be imminent.

Trump sees the director of national intelligence as playing a central role in election security, both past and present, sources familiar with the matter said. Many Trump allies expect Pulte — who has commiserated with the president over what MAGA allies have deemed “the Big Lie” — to support Trump in these efforts.

‘Bill will go there, unabashedly’

The president has been impressed with Pulte finding novel ways to use his housing role to effectively go after Trump’s opponents, even if those efforts haven’t proven to be successful, a person familiar with the decision told CNN.

“That’s exactly the type of stuff Trump wants in the person leading election security efforts. Bill will go there, unabashedly,” the person said.

In addition to influencing election-related issues, Pulte could also work to declassify certain documents that interest the president. Trump officials have previously criticized DNI for moving too slowly to hunt down and declassify materials that politically benefit the president, sources said, such as those related to the 2020 election.

But Pulte, who will remain in his role as housing director, is also a controversial person inside the West Wing and the Trump administration.

“A lot of people absolutely detest Pulte,” one of the sources said, noting that he has earned a reputation of pushing his own agenda with the president.

White House officials were frustrated with Pulte after he pitched Trump on a 50-year-mortgage plan last year. Trump blindsided people within the White House by suggesting the plan on Truth Social, which was immediately criticized by allies and industry experts.

Last year, Pulte almost came to blows with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a dinner hosted by a MAGA-aligned group, after Bessent accused Pulte of speaking negatively about him to the president in private, CNN reported at the time.

Shifting DNI responsibilities

In Trump’s second term, the role of DNI shrunk. Gabbard was left out of major national security meetings, such as those focused on the Iran war and military action in Venezuela, because her anti-interventionist ideology clashed with Trump’s desire to act, sources familiar with the internal dynamics told CNN.

While the DNI has historically been viewed as one of the most powerful Cabinet positions, tasked with managing threats specific to the homeland, Trump views it as less significant, sources familiar with his thinking said. He has instead looked to his CIA director, John Ratcliffe, for nearly all intelligence matters.

It was well known within the administration that Gabbard and Ratcliffe had a fraught relationship. A senior White House official said that the tensions were part of the reason that Gabbard focused her efforts on election integrity, because it gave each of the top intelligence officials a different lane.

Pulte’s appointment sparked shock among national security professionals and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The role, created after 9/11, oversees the 18 agencies that make up the intelligence community.

“We don’t need a weaponized DNI. We need professionals there,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said when asked about Pulte’s appointment. “I’ve just heard about it. I’ll try and get more information about the current state of their thinking about that position.”

Some Trump allies sowed doubts about Lukas — the deputy at ODNI and a career intelligence official who was seen as a solid successor to Gabbard within the administration — sources familiar with internal discussions told CNN. They accused him of having ties to the Obama and Biden administrations, though he had already been fully vetted by the Presidential Personnel Office.

It was not immediately clear to many Trump officials how long the president plans to keep Pulte in the role, especially given his lack of intelligence experience.

Pulte has made his way into Trump’s inner circle over the past few years, sources told CNN. A regular at Mar-a-Lago, Pulte’s real estate background gave him the ability to discuss, with a level of knowledge, an area that Trump cares deeply about.

And this is not the first time Trump has tapped a loyalist with little-to-no intelligence community experience to serve as acting DNI. During his first term, Trump named his ambassador to Germany, Ric Grenell, to fill the same role despite a similar lack of experience in the intelligence community. At the time, a former White House official told CNN that Trump was “looking for a ‘political’ who will have his back.”

Still, Grenell spent years working on national security issues and consuming classified intelligence prior to being appointed as acting DNI, even if he had not previously served in a role that involved actively collecting intelligence. Grenell maintained that that made him a strong candidate to push changes within the intelligence community.

It is unclear what, if any, experience Pulte has had consuming classified information or engaging with the intelligence community to date.

CNN’s Zachary Cohen, Kevin Liptak, Ted Barrett, Ellis Kim, Manu Raju, Sarah Ferris, Alison Main and Kit Maher contributed to this report.

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