{"id":1809,"date":"2026-06-02T20:35:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1809"},"modified":"2026-06-02T20:35:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:35:43","slug":"trump-names-real-estate-scion-bill-pulte-acting-intelligence-director-alarming-gop-and-dems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1809","title":{"rendered":"Trump names real estate scion Bill Pulte acting intelligence director alarming GOP and Dems"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><p><strong>WASHINGTON<\/strong> | President Donald Trump has tapped Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to be the acting director of national intelligence \u2014 putting a real estate scion and fierce Trump loyalist in a key national security post as the U.S. remains at war with Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Trump made the surprise announcement Tuesday on social media that Pulte would be replacing Tulsi Gabbard, the former Hawaii congresswoman who had served as the director of national intelligence. Trump said Pulte will keep his other positions even as he fills in for Gabbard, who resigned last month after revealing her husband\u2019s cancer diagnosis.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican president cited Pulte\u2019s work at the FHFA and his role as chair of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as indicating that his real estate work would overlap with the skills needed to coordinate 18 federal agencies tasked with foreign and domestic security.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWilliam has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets,\u201d Trump posted on Truth Social.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s choice to elevate Pulte, who would also continue in his post at FHFA, shows how the president is putting a greater priority on fidelity to him. It\u2019s unclear what national security expertise Pulte brings to bear as the U.S. faces conflict in the Middle East, helps Ukraine defend itself against Russia\u2019s assault and manages the emergence of artificial intelligence as a military tool. But Pulte has been a frequent guest on Air Force One as Trump has traveled to Mar-a-Lago, his home and club in Palm Beach, Florida.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor two decades, Presidents of both parties appointed experienced intelligence and national security professionals to this important role,\u201d Aurora Democratic Rep. Jason Crow said in a statement.  \u201cDonald Trump wants to fill this top job with a political loyalist with zero experience. Worse, Bill Pulte has already shown he is willing to weaponize the federal government against the President\u2019s political opponents. It is dangerous, and frankly insane, to appoint such an unqualified and unserious person like Bill Pulte.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As the grandson of the founder of PulteGroup, one of the country\u2019s largest homebuilders, Pulte has cut a combative streak on social media and used his post at the FHFA to attack perceived opponents of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p>His time overseeing mortgage finance has been linked with criminal referrals for mortgage fraud by public officials Trump sought to punish, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat; Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; and Lisa Cook, a board member of the Federal Reserve, who was nominated by a Democratic president, Joe Biden.<\/p>\n<p>The prosecution against James was dismissed in November after a judge concluded that the prosecutor who filed the charges was illegally appointed. Other referrals made by Pulte, including against Schiff and Cook, have not yielded any criminal charges. Lawyers for both have denied any claims of wrongdoing. But Trump did try to use the possibility of mortgage fraud as grounds for removing Cook from the Fed.<\/p>\n<p>Pulte told reporters at the White House several months ago that he had also made criminal referrals regarding at least one Republican official, but he declined to provide the name.<\/p>\n<p>He has famously gone after then-Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting the central bank\u2019s benchmark interest rates as aggressively as the president wanted. He has also been linked to ideas such as the 50-year mortgage and efforts to lower mortgage rates through the purchase of home loan debt that have not paid off as promised, as mortgage rates began to climb after the Iran war started at the end of February.<\/p>\n<p>Pulte has a reputation for cultivating enemies. In a legal feud pursued by Pulte that involved his family namesake\u2019s homebuilding company, he accused his grandfather\u2019s widow of insider trading. He was believed to be the driving force behind a website trashing an aunt as a \u201cfake Christian.\u201d And he publicly blasted another relative as \u201ca fat slob,\u201d \u201cweirdo\u201d and \u201cgrifter,\u201d according to court records.<\/p>\n<p>Politico reported in September that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened to punch Pulte in the face. The showdown occurred at a private dinner, and the treasury secretary claimed that he had heard Pulte had been badmouthing him to Trump.<\/p>\n<p>If formally nominated, Pulte would need to be confirmed by the Senate to hold the position full time.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1805\">How do you make vampires fly effortlessly on Broadway? Strong wires, harnesses and lots of practice<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1807\">Predators hire Chris MacFarland from Avalanche to become president of hockey operations\/GM<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1808\">After Supreme Court ruling, Gov. Polis signs bill allowing lawsuits over conversion therapy harm<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON | President Donald Trump has tapped Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to be the acting director of national intelligence \u2014 putting a real estate scion and fierce Trump loyalist in a key national security post as the U.S. remains at war with Iran. Trump made the surprise announcement Tuesday on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2818,45,2819,2820,2821,2020],"class_list":["post-1809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-bill-pulte","tag-donald-trump","tag-fannie-mae","tag-federal-housing-finance-agency","tag-freddie-mac","tag-tulsi-gabbard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Trump names real estate scion Bill Pulte acting intelligence director alarming GOP and Dems - Denver Moving Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1809\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump names real estate scion Bill Pulte acting intelligence director alarming GOP and Dems - Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WASHINGTON | President Donald Trump has tapped Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to be the acting director of national intelligence \u2014 putting a real estate scion and fierce Trump loyalist in a key national security post as the U.S. remains at war with Iran. 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