President Donald Trump reiterated that his new acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, won’t be in the role permanently.
Trump’s announcement on Tuesday that Pulte would replace Tulsi Gabbard and her original successor, Deputy Director Aaron Lukas. Pulte has rankled congressional Republicans over his lack of national security experience.
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“He’s very smart,” Trump told reporters of Pulte in the Oval Office on Thursday. “He’s a person who’s got high integrity. He’s done a phenomenal job at Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac.”
But Trump repeated that Pulte would only serve as DNI in an “acting position” capacity and that he is “not going to be permanent.”
“I don’t think he’d want to be permanent, but he’s a very smart guy, and you may find out some things about the rigged elections,” he said. “He wants to do it very much, got a lot of energy, but he’ll be very good again. It’s not a permanent position. We’re looking at, we’re interviewing people right now, but it’s somebody just to take it over for a little while.”
Part of Republicans’ concerns about Pulte is that he would politicize and weaponize intelligence, as he had done with mortgage applications during his time as Trump’s Federal Housing Finance Agency director.
In that role, the real estate scion and social media personality criminally referred Trump political opponents to the Justice Department over allegations of mortgage fraud.
But Trump’s comments on Thursday indicate he may continue Gabbard’s investigations into election security.
Gabbard was criticized for seizing voting machines in Georgia and Puerto Rico.
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Trump on Thursday also defended Pulte from criticism of his lack of national security experience, which is statutorily required for the role.
“I think he does, actually, because he’s smart,” Trump said. “I wasn’t greatly experienced in national security, and I think I’ve done a really great job with it.”
