Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte officially has another title on his résumé: acting director of national intelligence.
Friday marks the first day Pulte will serve as acting DNI, taking over from former DNI Tulsi Gabbard, despite bipartisan opposition against the top housing official serving as the nation’s intelligence chief.
President Donald Trump has tasked Pulte with downsizing the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, saying in a Truth Social post that staff would be reverted to their home agencies. But Trump has also said he asked Pulte, the chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to “start the process” of firing ODNI employees.
“I’d like to see it smaller,” the president told the Wall Street Journal. “I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there.”
But Trump’s tapping of Pulte as acting DNI derailed efforts in the Senate to pass an extension of a key government surveillance program that has since lapsed, with Democrats demanding Pulte be removed from the post before they support any patch of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Trump has dug his heels in against withdrawing Pulte, going so far as to upend Senate Republicans’ efforts to fast-track the president’s permanent DNI pick, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, on Wednesday with an early morning Truth Social post calling off Clayton’s confirmation hearing.
Clayton, the current U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, was nominated by Trump last week, raising GOP hopes that a deal could be struck with Democrats to install Clayton ahead of Pulte’s starting date and unlock support for a FISA extension.
Trump’s early morning post, in which he declared the confirmation process would not continue until the chamber approves Jamie McDonald to replace Clayton in his U.S. attorney post first, dashed those hopes.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) described Trump as “very committed” to Pulte, but told reporters he didn’t have good answers for why the president upended the Senate’s efforts to install Clayton and get a Section 702 extension passed.
“We’re just executing or trying to execute on what they had asked us to do,” Thune said. “They nominated, and we were trying to get them confirmed quickly, in hopes that that would unlock the FISA vote.”
Still, Thune said Democrats were not excused for withholding their support to extend the spy program, saying the authority is “just too important to the country.”
“This is a national security issue, and irrespective of what they think of Bill Pulte, they should be working to get FISA authorized, because it is the most important tool we have to keep this country safe,” Thune said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told reporters during a Wednesday press conference that Trump calling off Clayton’s confirmation hearing makes it “clear he is undermining our national security.”
“He doesn’t give a damn about the American people’s safety, plain and simple, and every action he takes undercuts our safety through his own ridiculous, sometimes even indiscernible, political motivation,” Schumer said. “Trump’s actions overnight make it clear. The fact that Trump withdrew Jay Clayton should erase anyone’s doubts. Trump wants FISA to stay expired.”
In his Wednesday social media post, Trump said Republicans were moving so quickly with Clayton’s nomination that “Pulte would be gone before the Dumocrats would vote on FISA.”
But also hindering efforts to pass a congressional reauthorization of the spy program is Trump’s demand that any extension of Section 702 include the voter ID legislation known as the SAVE America Act, with the president saying he would not support any deal that does not attach the legislation.
TRUMP SENDS SENATE GOP REELING WITH INTELLIGENCE CHIEF CHAOS
Schumer accused Trump of throwing “another grenade into the negotiations” by tying a deal to extend the spy tool to the passage of the SAVE America Act.
“He knows deliberately that that will make sure that FISA remains in lapse,” Schumer said.