U.S. President Donald Trump at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S., May 20, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Despite his lack of national security credentials, Donald Trump loyalist Bill Pulte is now acting director of national intelligence following the resignation of Tulsi Gabbard. Many of Pulte's critics are pointing out that his background is in housing, not national security. And University of Michigan law professor Leah Litman believes that Pulte poses a "real danger" from both a national security standpoint and a civil liberties standpoint.
During an early June appearance on The New Republic's podcast, "The Daily Blast," Litman laid out a variety of reasons why she considers Pulte a terrible choice for the position formerly held by Gabbard (who said she is resigning to care for her husband, who is suffering from a rare form of bone cancer). And she warned that the appointment fits right into President Trump's overall push to use the federal government as a tool of revenge against his political opponents.
Since 2025, Pulte has been serving as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) as well as chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since 2025. And he will continue his housing work with the second Trump administration while working as acting national intelligence director.
"It is so absurd as to be ridiculous," Litman told host Greg Sargent, a former Washington Post columnist. "It was always going to be hard to find a worse, more ridiculous DNI than Tulsi Gabbard, and Trump just might have done that. Bill Pulte has zero national security experience. He spent, as you were suggesting, the last 18 or so months just digging up dirt on Donald Trump's political enemies and made these criminal referrals in what I've been calling the mortgage fraud — accusing people of conducting mortgage fraud by misrepresenting some house as their primary residence when, as various outlets have reported, a lot of people do this, it can be accidental. And also, these criminal cases have gone nowhere."
The law professor added, "And so, the idea that we will have a director of national intelligence who is inclined toward basically ginning up accusations and targeting the president's political enemies is terrifying when you think about the vast powers that are part of our national security apparatus."
When Sargent criticized Pulte's "willingness to engage in extraordinary corruption to target Trump's enemies," he got no argument from Litman.
"I think it's a similar story as happened with acting — or auditioning — Attorney General Todd Blanche," Litman told Sargent. "Donald Trump wants the people who are willing to be subservient to him and are completely willing to cross every single legal guardrail in the name of loyalty. And so, yes, you're right. He wants to give someone like that more power. We have a vast federal apparatus — law enforcement powers are sweeping — but they pale in comparison to what the national security state has…. If you saw or heard some of the right-wing universe that was actually excited about this pick — like Steve Bannon, for example, talking with Jack Posobiec — they were talking about how maybe this would allow Bill Pulte to go after domestic terrorism in addition to foreign terrorism. And by that, they really meant the anti-ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) protesters."
The law professor continued, "And so, yes, I think that the people who are excited about this pick are excited about it precisely because they are envisioning weaponizing the national security apparatus. And the people who are concerned or hesitant about it are hesitant or concerned for the exact same reason."