Trump gives away the game with hires that pose 'grave risk to US security': DOJ alum

U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 4, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

President Donald Trump, on Thursday, announced that he plans to nominate Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche to head the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for a full term. The same day, Trump also told reporters that he has no plans to nominate Acting National Intelligence Director Bill Pulte as a permanent replacement for Tulsi Gabbard. Trump's Pulte appointment is drawing widespread criticism, as he has no intel experience. But according to law professor and former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade, Trump views "incompetence" as a plus — not a minus — in his administration.

Trump, McQuade laments in an opinion column for MS NOW, chooses "incompetent" or inexperienced appointees on purpose because they are less likely to question his policies.

"Pulte was, and remains, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency — hardly the background one would expect for the leader of America's 18 intelligence agencies," the former DOJ prosecutor writes. "That's particularly true during a time when America is at war with Iran, a hostile foreign adversary whom the U.S. government considers a state sponsor of terrorism…. Pulte replaces Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned from the post last month amid disagreements over the threat posed by Iran."

McQuade continues, "Gabbard's resume was thin, but at least she had experience in the military and in Congress. Pulte appears to lack any national security expertise at all. In fact, his only apparent qualification is unflinching loyalty to the president and an eagerness to weaponize the government against Trump's perceived foes."

McQuade notes that she was working in DOJ in 2001 when Congress — in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks — created the director of national intelligence (DNI) position, which requires one to oversee "the nation's collection, analysis, and dissemination of information relating to terrorist plots, cyberattacks, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and malign foreign influence."

"Why would a president want to fill such a sensitive and important position with someone who lacks any bona fide credentials?" McQuade writes. "Perhaps the appointment reflects what historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat calls 'engineered incompetence.' When a leader appoints an individual to an office that is above their station, the official becomes beholden to the leader — who, in turn, gains absolute control. Knowing they are in over their head, the official is less likely to assert independent judgment or to object when the leader acts in his self-interest instead of the public good."

McQuade adds, "Engineered incompetence explains how a Fox News host, (Pete Hegseth), gets appointed secretary of defense and promptly shares sensitive attack plans over a Signal chat…. Effective leaders value candid advice, even when it means hearing things that conflict with their policy preferences. A leader who ignores unpleasant news is one who is unprepared to make clear-eyed choices on behalf of the people he was elected to serve. With a loyalist like Pulte leading the president's daily intelligence brief, the engineered incompetence itself poses a grave risk to our national security."

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