William Pulte, the grandson of a homebuilder magnate who was appointed to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) by President Donald Trump in 2025, will serve on an interim basis as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in Trump’s cabinet, overseeing the sprawling federal intelligence network including the CIA, NSA and parts of the FBI.
Trump announced the decision on social media this morning, saying Pulte “has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America,” and touting the FHFA’s success under Pulte’s leadership. Trump also said Pulte will continue simultaneously serving as FHFA director and chair.
The appointment comes 10 days after Tulsi Gabbard stepped down as DNI, with her resignation effective June 30. Pulte, at age 38, would appear to be the youngest ever DNI (a position that was created after 9/11 by President George W. Bush). Pulte will need to be confirmed by the Senate to serve in the role on a permanent basis.
As head of the FHFA, Pulte maintained a high-profile presence in the administration, participating in the early days of DOGE’s cost-cutting campaigns and lobbying for criminal charges against former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook for alleged fraud.
He also pushed for flashy changes to America’s housing system, including floating the idea of a 50-year mortgage, and allowing the use of crypto to qualify for mortgage loans—proposals that received mixed-to-indifferent reactions from the housing industry.
Other efforts under Pulte, including for overall deregulation and reforms to long-running issues like credit reporting and the end of the GSEs’ conservatorship, were more favorably received by both lawmakers and industry advocates. Pulte also pushed for the GSEs to accept new Vantage 4.0 credit scores, which has been welcomed by much of the mortgage industry,
But Pulte made his biggest headlines outside the confines of the FHFA’s normal operations, using social media and other channels to accuse Powell, Cook and a handful of Democratic officials of misconduct, mostly related to alleged mortgage fraud. He sent criminal referrals for several of the cases, most of which have stalled.
Pulte himself was investigated by the Government Accountability Office for alleged abuse of power as he personally carried out these investigations, though the status or the conclusion of that inquiry was not clear. Multiple news outlets also reported that the Department of Justice (DOJ) was probing how these mortgage fraud investigations were run, though then-Attorney General Pam Bondi clarified that Pulte himself was not being investigated.
