2026-06-03T04:00:07.959Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/03/politics/trump-pulte-dni-election-security-analysis
唐纳德·特朗普总统巩固其政治基础的一大“超能力”，就是总能震惊并激怒华盛顿精英阶层。
因此，他在周二提名联邦住房金融局局长比尔·普尔担任美国新任代理最高情报主管，是典型的政治操作。
两党议员都对此感到困惑，公开表示难以理解为何选择一名在该关键职位上毫无明显资质的官员。普尔完全没有情报、间谍活动或国家安全领域的背景。缅因州共和党参议员苏珊·柯林斯对记者表示，她甚至不清楚普尔是否曾获得过安全许可。
CNN周二报道称，特朗普的理由很简单：他需要一名自己可以信任的忠实拥护者。消息人士透露，他还希望普尔能在选举安全方面发挥作用。
这一预期已经令民主党人感到担忧，因为特朗普正在加紧散播毫无根据的言论，称11月的中期选举可能会受到欺诈的破坏，而普尔在现任岗位上已经表现出，他愿意动用联邦权力，推动针对总统政敌的政治化调查。
“负责监督从反恐到外国选举威胁等一切事务的官员，之所以能获得任命，是因为他愿意推进总统的政治议程，而非凭借自身经验，美国民众完全有理由对此感到担忧，”参议院情报特别委员会副主席、民主党参议员马克·华纳在一份声明中表示。
客气地说，特朗普对国家情报总监一职的设想十分另类。
根据法律规定，国家情报总监是美国最高情报官员。该职位的职责包括向总统通报潜在的恐怖袭击风险、评估对手在战时可能采取的行动、监督最机密的反间谍活动，并为秘密行动获得总统批准。
这一职位设立于灾难的废墟之上：2001年的9·11袭击造成2977人在华盛顿、纽约和宾夕法尼亚州丧生。奥萨马·本·拉登的自杀式劫机者利用了美国情报机构协调不力所造成的漏洞。
如今美国再次卷入中东战争，在普尔获提名之前，就已经有人担忧特朗普时代的政治化正在削弱国家情报总监办公室履行其创始职责的能力。
设立国家情报总监办公室的法律规定，该职位“应具备广泛的国家安全专业知识”。特朗普周二在社交媒体上表示，普尔“在美国处理最敏感事务、市场安全与稳健方面拥有丰富经验”，并掌管房利美和房地美共计10万亿美元的资产。但尽管普尔在高端金融领域拥有成功的职业生涯，他的资历似乎远未达到法律规定的要求。
不过，普尔对特朗普而言却是完美人选，因为他具备特朗普此前多项高层任命所展现出的诸多特质。
在特朗普圈子混乱的行事规则中，一个人缺乏该职位通常要求的资质，反而可能成为他们适配该岗位的优势。
普尔是一位绝对的忠实拥护者，也是海湖庄园核心圈子的常客；他以在电视上坚定维护特朗普而闻名；而且他已经证明，自己愿意动用政府权力对付特朗普的政敌。作为住房局长，他曾向司法部提交刑事举报，指控几名被特朗普视为政敌的人士存在抵押贷款欺诈行为。
普尔的任命也体现了特朗普的政治演变。特朗普第一任期的首位国家情报总监是丹·科茨，一位备受尊敬的前共和党参议员，特朗普似乎注定会与他产生冲突。例如，科茨曾表示俄罗斯干预了2016年大选——这在特朗普阵营中属于“异端言论”。
此次特朗普的内阁任命表明，他绝不允许第一任期内高级官员试图约束自己的情况再次上演。联邦调查局局长卡什·帕特尔、国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯等“让美国再次伟大”阵营的人物，正是因此得以担任高级国家安全职位。普尔完全符合这一传统。
罗德岛州参议员、参议院军事委员会最高民主党议员杰克·里德抨击普尔，称其是情报界历史上担任该关键职位最不合格的人选。他补充道：“特朗普总统身边总是围绕着不合格的‘应声虫’，这是误导我国卷入灾难性伊朗战争的因素之一。”
特朗普选择一名情报界新手担任此职，也是对情报界的一种毫不掩饰的冒犯。自特朗普声称自己在2016年竞选期间遭到监听以来，他就一直对情报界心存怀疑。一些“让美国再次伟大”阵营的影响力人士甚至呼吁彻底废除国家情报总监办公室。但尽管特朗普对此不屑一顾，该机构仍发挥着关键作用。它负责监督总统的每日情报简报。而美国所有情报机构的负责人，例如中央情报局局长约翰·拉特克利夫，都需向国家情报总监汇报工作。
理解普尔获提拔的最佳方式，是将其视为一场政治博弈。
特朗普近期面临巨大的政治压力，尤其是在战争和杰弗里·爱泼斯坦事件方面，这一压力也来自他的支持者群体。通过选择普尔，他向“让美国再次伟大”阵营的强硬派和保守派媒体生态系统表明，他依然是一名颠覆者、局外人，是“深层政府”的克星。
右翼活动家杰克·波索比克在史蒂夫·班农的播客上称赞对“狂野比尔”普尔的提名。“他正是那个提交刑事举报的人……普尔是那种能办成事，然后继续埋头工作的人。”
特朗普最早、最具影响力的“让美国再次伟大”主题之一，就是认为由永久职业官僚和建制派精英组成的阶层压制普通美国人的目标，并阻挠了此前共和党总统的施政。
副总统JD·万斯——作为潜在的共和党未来总统候选人，他必须始终争取支持者群体和特朗普的好感——也呼应了这一观点，在X平台上称赞普尔，称其认识到“情报界的官僚机构必须响应民选领导层的指令，而非相反”。
就在普尔的提名——典型的特朗普式“让美国再次伟大”风格的本能选择——公布之际，共和党参议员否决了另一项迎合支持者的举措：一项17.76亿美元的赔偿基金，用于赔偿那些声称在拜登政府期间遭受武器化司法迫害的人，其中可能包括2021年美国国会大厦骚乱事件的定罪者。这或许并非巧合。
如果参议员们的早期反应可以作为参考，普尔几乎没有机会获得永久任职的确认。具有讽刺意味的是，许多参议员曾因现任国家情报总监图尔西·加巴德的非常规政治观点而犹豫不决，而加巴德正辞职照顾患病的丈夫。
但加巴德似乎比普尔更适合该职位：她是连任四届的国会议员，曾在众议院服役于军事委员会、国土安全委员会和外交事务委员会，曾被部署到中东和非洲，还是美国陆军预备役的营长。
参议院多数党领袖约翰·图恩对记者表示，国家需要“专业人士”担任该部门职务。“如果他们（正式提名普尔永久担任该职位），他将不得不经历确认程序和听证会等所有环节，我们拭目以待。”
但代理任命的官员无需经过参议院确认。根据1998年《联邦空缺改革法案》，总统可以临时任命像普尔这样已经获得参议院确认担任其他职位的官员。该官员可以担任该职位的基准任期为210天。
这一时间线令民主党人感到担忧。反对党已经对加巴德最具争议的举动感到不安——她出现在佐治亚州富尔顿县投票中心的联邦调查局搜查现场。多家法院都驳斥了特朗普关于2020年大选被窃取的虚假言论。而宪法规定，选举由各州而非联邦政府负责管理。一些批评人士担心，特朗普的助手可能会找到或编造外国干预的案例，作为宣布国家进入紧急状态并接管选举管理的借口。
普尔作为代理国家情报总监，依法至少可以任职到今年年底，这一时间跨度涵盖11月的中期选举。特朗普已经多次声称此次中期选举可能会受到欺诈的破坏。
普尔在联邦住房金融局的经历加剧了人们的担忧：他曾向司法部提交刑事举报，指控四名调查特朗普的民主党人存在抵押贷款欺诈行为，包括纽约州总检察长莱蒂西亚·詹姆斯、前众议员埃里克·斯沃韦尔、参议员亚当·希夫和富尔顿县地区检察官范妮·威利斯。他还就类似指控举报了美联储理事丽莎·库克。
华纳在声明中警告称：“总统选择了一位不仅愿意，而且热切希望动用政府权力进行政治报复的官员。”
具有讽刺意味的是，这位弗吉尼亚州参议员的担忧，与波索比克所称的普尔“能为特朗普办成事”的说法不谋而合。
两种观点都表明，应该从政治而非国家安全的角度看待普尔的提拔。这也意味着，尽管有人声称特朗普已进入跛鸭任期，但他计划在第二任期剩余时间里，让政府继续像他上任第一年半那样动荡不安。
The true meaning of Trump’s choice for America’s new top spy
2026-06-03T04:00:07.959Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/03/politics/trump-pulte-dni-election-security-analysis
President Donald Trump’s ability to shock and outrage Washington elites is a superpower when it comes to solidifying his political base.
His elevation on Tuesday of Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to serve as America’s new acting top spymaster was therefore a classic political move.
Mystified senators of both parties publicly struggled to comprehend the selection of an official with no obvious qualifications for such a critical role. Pulte lacks background in intelligence, espionage or national security. Sen. Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, told reporters that she was unaware whether Pulte had ever held a security clearance.
CNN reported Tuesday that Trump’s reasoning was simple: He wanted a loyalist that he could trust. And he also sees Pulte playing a role in election security, sources said.
That expectation already has Democrats worried, since Trump is accelerating his baseless claims that November’s midterm elections could be scarred by fraud, and Pulte has shown in his current role that he’s willing to use federal power in his current role to boost politicized investigations into the president’s foes.
“Americans have every reason to worry about what happens when the official charged with overseeing everything from counterterrorism to foreign election threats is chosen for his willingness to advance the president’s political agenda rather than his experience,” Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement.
Trump’s vision for the director of national intelligence post is, to put it politely, idiosyncratic.
The DNI is charged by law with acting as America’s top intelligence official. The role may include briefing the president on potential terrorist attacks, assessing an adversary’s possible moves in wartime, overseeing the most secret counter-intelligence activities and securing presidential approval for covert actions.
The job was born in the ashes of disaster: the 9/11 attacks in 2001 that killed 2,977 people in Washington, New York and Pennsylvania. Osama bin Laden’s suicide hijackers had exploited loopholes opened by a catastrophic failure of US intelligence agencies to coordinate.
With America embroiled in a new war in the Middle East, there were already fears before Pulte’s appointment that Trump-era politicization is eroding the DNI’s capacity to fulfill its founding role.
The statute creating the Office of the Director of National Intelligence stated the director “shall have extensive national security expertise.” Trump said Tuesday on social media that Pulte had “deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets” and $10 trillion at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But Pulte’s record, despite a successful career in high finance, appears to fall well short of the law’s stipulation.
Pulte is nevertheless a perfect pick for Trump because he shares many of the qualities exhibited by the president’s previous high-level appointments.
In the scrambled conventions of Trump’s ecosystem, someone’s lack of customary qualifications for the role, can paradoxically make them a good fit.
Pulte is an uber-loyalist and a regular in the Mar-a-Lago inner circle; he’s known for rigorously defending Trump on television; and he has shown he’s willing to use the power of government to go after Trump’s enemies. As housing director, he sent the Justice Department criminal referrals on allegations of mortgage fraud against several of Trump’s perceived political enemies.
Pulte’s appointment also charts Trump’s political evolution. The president’s first DNI in his first term was Dan Coats, a respected former Republican senator with whom Trump seemed destined to clash. Coats, for example, said that Russia had interfered in the 2016 elections — a heresy in Trump world.
Trump demonstrated with his Cabinet picks this time around that he’d permit no repeats of senior officials’ efforts in his first term to restrain him. This is how MAGA personalities like FBI Director Kash Patel and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ended up with top national security jobs. Pulte is squarely within this tradition.
Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, blasted Pulte as the most unqualified official in the history of the intelligence community to assume such a critical role. He added: “President Trump’s desire to surround himself with unqualified ‘yes men’ is one of the factors that misled our nation into disastrous war with Iran.”
Trump’s selection of an intelligence neophyte is also a not so-subtle insult to the covert community, which has long drawn his suspicion following his claims he was spied on during his 2016 campaign. Some MAGA influencers have called for the abolition of the DNI altogether. But despite Trump’s disdain, the agency plays a critical role. It oversees the president’s daily intelligence brief. And leaders of all US intelligence agencies, such as CIA Director John Ratcliffe, report to the DNI.
The best way to understand Pulte’s promotion is as a political gambit.
Trump has been under intense political pressure recently, including from his base, especially over the war and the Jeffrey Epstein drama. By choosing Pulte, he is showing MAGA hardliners and the conservative media ecosystem that he’s still a disrupter, an outsider and a scourge of the “deep state.”
Right-wing activist Jack Posobiec praised the selection of “Wild Bill” Pulte on Steve Bannon’s podcast. “He’s been the one to get the criminal referrals. … Pulte is the kind of guy who gets stuff done, then he just goes back to work.”
One of Trump’s earliest and most resonant MAGA themes has been the idea that a permanent professional class of bureaucrats and establishment elites suppress the goals of regular Americans and have thwarted previous GOP presidents.
Vice President JD Vance — who must always cultivate the base and Trump’s favor as a potential future GOP presidential candidate — tapped into this sentiment, praising Pulte on X for recognizing that “the bureaucracy of the intel community must respond to the elected leadership (rather than the other way around).”
It may be no coincidence that Pulte’s selection — a classic Trump MAGA reflex — came as Republican senators derailed another base-pleasing move: a $1.776 billion compensation fund for those who claim they were victims of weaponized justice during the Biden administration — including, potentially, those convicted of offenses in the 2021 US Capitol riot.
If early reaction from senators is any guide, Pulte would stand little chance of being confirmed to the role permanently. Ironically, many senators had balked at the unconventional political views of the current DNI, Tulsi Gabbard, who is stepping down to support her husband, who has cancer.
But Gabbard seems far more suited to the role than Pulte: She was a four-term member of Congress who served on the Armed Services, Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs committees in the House and deployed to the Middle East and Africa and is a battalion commander in the US Army Reserve.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that the country needed “professionals” at the department. “If they nominate (Pulte) to take the position permanently, he’ll have to go through a confirmation process and hearings and everything else, so we’ll see.”
But an official in an acting appointment does not need Senate confirmation. According to the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, a president can appoint an official who, like Pulte, has secured Senate confirmation for another position, on an interim basis. The official can hold the job for a baseline of 210 days.
That timeline will worry Democrats. The opposition party was already spooked by Gabbard’s most controversial act — showing up at an FBI search of a Fulton County, Georgia, voting center. Multiple courts have refuted Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. And the Constitution puts states rather than the federal government in charge of elections. Some critics fear Trump aides could find or concoct an example of foreign interference as a pretext for declaring a national emergency and taking over election administration.
Pulte could legally serve as acting DNI until at least the end of the year, a timeframe encompassing November’s midterms, which Trump has already repeatedly claimed could be tainted by fraud.
Fears about Pulte’s willingness to use federal power to pursue Trump’s fixations and to punish his enemies is exacerbated by his role at the FHFA, when he sent the Justice Department criminal referrals on allegations of mortgage fraud against four Democrats who investigated Trump: New York Attorney General Letitia James, then-Rep. Eric Swalwell, Sen. Adam Schiff and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. He also referred Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over similar allegations.
In his statement, Warner warned that “the president has chosen an official who has demonstrated not just willingness but eagerness to use the authorities of government to pursue political retribution.”
Ironically, the Virginia senator’s concerns mirrored Posbiec’s contention that Pulte “gets stuff done” for Trump.
Both views suggest that Pulte’s promotion should be seen through a political rather than a national security lens. And they imply that, despite claims he’s receding into lame duck status, Trump plans to make the rest of his second term just as tumultuous as his first year-and-a-half back in office.