Trump Taps Familiar Name To Replace Tulsi Gabbard

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he is appointing Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William J. “Bill” Pulte to serve as acting Director of National Intelligence after Tulsi Gabbard’s resignation last month.

Pulte, a staunch Trump ally with a reputation for aggressive institutional cleanups, will pull double duty, maintaining his current role leading the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“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 said, praising Pulte for a “substantial increase” in housing market health over the last 12 months.

Pulte replaces Gabbard, who announced her resignation on May 22 to support her husband through a battle with a rare form of bone cancer. Gabbard will officially step down at the end of June.

Gabbard’s 16-month tenure as America’s top spy chief has been highly consequential. Dubbed “ODNI 2.0,” her restructuring slashed the agency by 40%, saving taxpayers $700 million annually, while declassifying over 500,000 pages of withheld records  — including files exposing how the Obama administration weaponized intelligence during the “Russia Hoax.”

Before she departs on June 30, Gabbard plans to drop weekly, high-profile investigative findings on Havana Syndrome, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the weaponization of the federal government.

Pulte is no stranger to taking on Washington’s most entrenched political actors. Since being sworn into the FHFA in March 2025, Pulte has used his platform to root out alleged financial misconduct, zeroing in on key Democrats who previously targeted President Trump.

Among his biggest scalps is New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a civil fraud case against Trump. After an FHFA referral by Pulte, James was indicted on federal bank and mortgage fraud charges in Virginia. Pulte applied the same tactic to Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), a lead prosecutor in Trump’s first impeachment trial, referring Schiff to the Department of Justice for alleged mortgage fraud.

The grandson of legendary homebuilder William J. Pulte — who built PulteGroup into a Fortune 500 titan — the younger Pulte forged his own multi-million-dollar path in private equity.

Pulte is widely recognized for his unique philanthropic efforts. In 2013, he launched the widely-praised Blight Authority, a non-profit that successfully cleared urban decay and demolished abandoned properties to restore neighborhood safety in Detroit and Pontiac, Michigan. He later achieved massive fame on social media as a pioneer of “Twitter Philanthropy,” directly handing out hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to everyday Americans for medical bills, food, and emergencies.