Trump says Bill Pulte, new intel chief, will probe ‘rigged elections’

By Jacob Knutson

Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte speaking at the White House in July 2025. (Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson, AP)
Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte speaking at the White House in July 2025. (Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson, AP)

President Donald Trump said Bill Pulte, his incoming acting director of national intelligence (DNI), will investigate elections that the president falsely claimed were “rigged.”

Asked by a reporter what made Pulte, a top federal housing official who has no known experience in intelligence, qualified for the DNI role, Trump said he’s a “smart guy” who would probe elections on his behalf — an alarming task for the country’s top intelligence officer.

“He’s a very smart guy,” Trump said in the Oval Office Thursday. “And he may find out some things about the rigged elections.”

“I think he’d like to do it,” the president added. “I’d like to. I think he wants to do it very much.”

On Tuesday, Trump named Pulte, who currently leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), to replace outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard, who announced last month that she will resign from her post later this summer.

Throughout her tenure, Gabbard has been heavily involved in probing conspiracy theories related to the 2020 election, which Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed was stolen from him. After assuming the acting position later this year, Pulte will likely follow Trump’s order and continue — if not greatly expand — the elections-related probes Gabbard initiated.

Known in MAGA circles as “Little Trump,” Pulte has used his relatively minor federal housing post — and his chairmanship of mortgage groups Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — to help initiate mortgage-related criminal investigations against a swath of the president’s enemies.

Trump’s elevation of Pulte to acting DNI outraged both Democrats and Republicans, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) saying that he did not want “a weaponized DNI.”

“We need professionals there,” Thune added. 

The Trump administration has defended Gabbard’s election probes by claiming that the DNI plays a key role in election security and protecting the integrity of elections.

However, while past DNIs have investigated election threats originating from abroad, Gabbard’s investigations have been strictly domestic, at times focused on specific counties. 

Earlier this year, she took part in the FBI’s extraordinary raid on an election facility in Fulton County, Georgia, during which the bureau obtained original ballots and other sensitive voting information. Her office also seized voting machines from Puerto Rico and probed them for security vulnerabilities.