• Key insight: Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte will be President Donald Trump's acting director of national intelligence. 
• What's at stake: Pulte will remain at FHFA, where he's used the agency's resources and data to attack the Trump administration's political enemies, including Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook. 
• Forward look: Pulte's new portfolio of responsibilities will make it challenging for the FHFA to develop and execute a strategy to release Fannie and Freddie, another goal of the administration. 

• Bloomberg News

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has picked Bill Pulte, who currently heads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to serve as the next director of national intelligence, overseeing the government's various intelligence agencies. Pulte will succeed Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned last month. As head of FHFA, Pulte serves in a Senate-confirmed position, allowing him to serve on an interim basis under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. Pulte has used his position atop FHFA to target the Trump administration's perceived political enemies, recommending that the Department of Justice investigate Democratic lawmakers and Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook for unproven allegations of fraud. 

Pulte will remain atop the FHFA while he serves as the president's top intelligence advisor. It likely means that priorities for many congressional Republicans and bankers are on the backburner. 

"We believe this makes a transaction that would permit Fannie and Freddie to exit conservatorship less likely," said Jaret Seiberg, an analyst at TD Cowen, in a note. "It already was going to be operationally and politically difficult to end the conservatorships. We do not see how one could surmount those obstacles if the FHFA director is devoting most of his time to national security issues."

Pulte "has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America," Trump said in a Truth Social post. 

Pulte also publicly urged the Trump administration to investigate Jerome Powell for his comments about the Fed-building renovations, and promoted a 50-year mortgage idea promoted by Trump. 

Democratic lawmakers immediately decried the appointment. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said that Pulte was "chosen for his willingness to advance the president's political agenda rather than his experience." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that Pulte is a "partisan thug with no experience in intelligence." 

Pulte also has a bombastic relationship with other Trump administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Bessent and Pulte reportedly nearly came to physical blows last year after Bessent heard that Pulte spoke poorly of him to Trump.