Trump Finds a New Patsy to Serve as Director of National Intelligence

When Tulsi Gabbard called it quits last month, we wrote that, unless Donald Trump could find a new Director of National Intelligence (DNI) as willing as she was to advance his conspiracy theories, her departure would leave a void. Luckily for the president, it didn’t take him long.

On Tuesday, he announced that Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, would take over as acting DNI while also continuing in his current role.

That compels us to point out a couple of noteworthy items.

The first is that it seems, at least to us, as though overseeing the vast US intelligence apparatus should be a full-time job – especially while the country is at war and Trump keeps making new enemies.

The second is that Pulte is a complete novice in this space. Or, as The New York Times put it, he has “no known national security experience,” which is a classic Timesism if we have ever seen one. Sure, that is technically correct, but so is us saying that we have “no known experience” leading an NFL franchise to the Super Bowl.

The fact is that Pulte’s main achievement is having been born into a rich family, and, unless he moonlighted as a spy while he coasted through life, he has zero experience in the field.

In announcing the appointment, even Trump couldn’t conjure up an explanation for what makes Pulte qualified to take over a (part-time) job that seems pretty important.

“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, a substantial increase from where it was just 12 months ago,” he wrote in a social media post.

Then again, Pulte has demonstrated that he meets the only qualifications that matter to Trump: blind loyalty and a willingness to dig up dirt on the president’s enemies while ignoring his own misdeeds.

Most notably, he (ab)used his office to lob mortgage fraud allegations at Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), New York Attorney General Leticia James, and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

All three of them are on Trump’s list of enemies.

It is important to note that the president himself has done exactly what Pulte accused the Democrats of.

And that is exactly the kind of energy Trump expects of his DNI.

Gabbard’s main “accomplishments” in the job were advancing some of his conspiracy theories and helping the president lay the groundwork for allowing his administration to play a greater role in elections.

For example, she just happened to be present at an FBI raid in Fulton County during which federal agents seized ballots from the 2020 election that Trump lost to Joe Biden.

What does that have to do with national intelligence? Not much.

But it does have a lot to do with using the levers of power to do Trump’s bidding… just like Pulte has been doing.