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tulsi gabbard
Even Senate Republicans Are Against Trump's Appointment of Pulte as Acting Intel Chief
“We don’t need a weaponized DNI; we need professionals there," said Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Jun 02, 2026
Republican US senators including Majority Leader John Thune on Tuesday joined a growing chorus of criticism in response to President Donald Trump's appointment of loyalist Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence, despite an utter lack of relevant experience or expertise.
Thune (SD) was asked by a reporter what he thought of Trump's appointment of the private equity firm founder and homebuilder—who is currently director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—to the top intel post, which current Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard will officially vacate on June 30.
“We don’t need a weaponized DNI; we need professionals there," Thune said, according to The Hill. “If they nominate him to take the position permanently, he’ll have to go through a confirmation process and hearings and everything else, so we’ll see."
Thune added that Pulte would have "a lengthy road ahead of him" if Trump sought to make him the permanent DNI.
The majority leader wasn't the only Senate Republican who voiced opposition to Trump's move.
"The best I can tell you is he’s not qualified, but I don’t know anything about him other than that," said outgoing Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who last month lost a primary to Trump-backed Republican challenger Rep. Julia Letlow.
Sen. John Cornyn—who also lost his recent primary runoff in Texas after Trump backed his opponent, state Attorney General Ken Paxton—told reporters that “I see no evidence of any qualifications for that job" for Pulte, "but I’m willing to listen.”
Common Dreams reported earlier Tuesday on Democratic opposition to Pulte's appointment, mostly over allegations that he's used his position at FHFA to target Trump's political foes for politically motivated mortgage fraud investigations.
Targeted individuals include two figures involved in Trump's two impeachments: Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and former Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.); former FBI Director James Comey, who oversaw an investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election; New York Attorney General Letitia James, who won a $450 million judgment against the president and his business in a civil fraud case; and Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook, whom the president has been attempting to oust so that he can fill the US central bank with loyalists.
Last November, a federal judge dismissed the cases against Comey and James, ruling that Trump's handpicked prosecutor was illegally installed. The following month, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office agreed to investigate whether Pulte and other FHFA employees "potentially misused federal authority and resources to publicly accuse prominent Democrats and President Donald Trump’s perceived political enemies of mortgage fraud."
Even more Democrats piled on Pulte later on Tuesday.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said on X: "As someone who helped set up the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, I oppose elevating Bill Pulte to acting director. He has no experience. Zero. And he is the wrong choice to help keep us safe."
"Mr. Pulte has weaponized his current agency against the president's critics, he's fired federal watchdogs looking into his allies, and he is under active investigation by the Government Accountability Office," she continued. "This all makes him an incredibly dangerous choice to be in charge of ODNI and have access to the tools of this office."
"As someone who has had the government weaponized against me, I cannot in good conscience support his elevation to such a sensitive post," added Slotkin, who drew Trump's ire and a federal probe with a video reminding US troops of their duty to not follow illegal orders. "The president should choose a serious nominee."
Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona—a retired Navy captain who was investigated by the Pentagon for comments similar to Slotkin's until a federal judge blocked the baseless probe—quipped, “If you’re good at drywall, you must be good at national intelligence."
"I don’t get it," he added. "This is an important job, you know. This is about the safety of all Americans.”
Advocacy groups also rejected Pulte's appointment, with the co-chairs of the Not Above the Law coalition issuing a statement reading, “This appointment is a reward, and has nothing to do with qualifications."
"At FHFA, Bill Pulte did one thing: hunt Trump’s perceived enemies," the statement by Public Citizen's Lisa Gilbert, Constitutional Accountability Center's Praveen Fernandes, MoveOn's Kelsey Herbert, and Stand Up America's Brett Edkins continued. "He ginned up mortgage fraud allegations against sitting officials, which federal investigators found baseless, and weaponized a housing regulator to punish those who tried to hold Trump accountable."
“If past is prologue, he will now do the same with the vast resources of the US intelligence community," the co-chairs asserted. "The agencies built to protect Americans, including our troops at home and abroad, will be turned into instruments of political retribution, betraying the men and women who serve those agencies and every American whose safety depends on them."
“Trump doesn’t staff his government with people who uphold the law," the statement adds. "He installs people willing to break it for him, and now he’s handing one of them the keys to our nation’s most sensitive information.”
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'Good Riddance': Tulsi Gabbard Resigns as Trump's Director of National Intelligence
"She never should've had this job to begin with," said one Democratic lawmaker.
May 22, 2026
Tulsi Gabbard resigned on Friday after serving as US President Donald Trump's Director of National Security during his second term in the White House.
"Good riddance," said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) in response. "She never should've had this job to begin with."
Pete Hegseth Lambasts 'Ungrateful' Allies, Press for Response to Deeply Unpopular Iran War
Hegseth also scolded the US media for reporting negative news about the war and insisted that it wasn't a "quagmire."
Mar 19, 2026
President Donald Trump's unprovoked and unconstitutional war against Iran has led to energy prices surging across the globe while unleashing political instability across the Middle East.
However, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the world needs to show Trump more gratitude for everything he's done.
Speaking at a press conference, Hegseth lambasted US allies who so far have not joined Trump's Iran war, which he launched early on a Saturday morning without any approval from the US Congress.
"The world, the Middle East, our ungrateful allies in Europe, even segments of our own press, should be saying one thing to President Trump: 'Thank you,'" Hegseth said. "Thank you for the courage to stop this terror state from holding the world hostage with missiles while building, or attempting to build, a nuclear bomb. Thank you for doing the work of the free world."
Hegseth: "Our ungrateful allies in Europe, even segments of our own press, should be saying one thing to President Trump -- 'Thank you. Thank you for the courage to stop this terror stage from holding the world hostage while building or attempting to build a nuclear bomb.'" pic.twitter.com/EpuPOUDd6I
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 19, 2026
US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified under oath before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee on Wednesday that Iran's nuclear weapons program had been "obliterated" by US-led airstrikes that were launched last year, and that there "has been no effort since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability" since then.
Former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent also said Iran had posed "no imminent threat" when he announced his resignation this week.
Despite those acknowledgments by high-level officials, elsewhere in the press conference, Hegseth attacked the US media for reporting negative news about the Iran war.
"The media here—not all of it, but much of it—wants you to think, just 19 days into this conflict, that we're somehow spinning toward an endless abyss or a forever war or a quagmire," claimed the one-time Fox News host. "Nothing could be further from the truth."
Hegseth: The media wants you to think that we're somehow spinning toward an endless abyss or a forever war or a quagmire. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hear it from me.
One of hundreds of thousands who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, who watched previous foolish… pic.twitter.com/qI3RpGzmy3
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 19, 2026
Hegseth then informed viewers that as "one of hundreds of thousands who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, who watched previous foolish politicians like [Presidents George W.] Bush, [Barack] Obama, and [Joe] Biden squander American credibility," he could credibly claim that "this is not those wars" because "President Trump knows better."
Hegseth also defended the Pentagon's request for $200 billion in funding for the war, telling reporters, "IT takes money to kill bad guys."
The Iran Health Ministry has estimated more than 1,200 Iranians have been killed in Israeli and US strikes since the war began in late February.
A recent analysis of opinion polls conducted by data analyst G. Elliott Morris found that the Iran war is the most unpopular military conflict launched by the US over the span of at least three decades.
“The big takeaway from these numbers is that the new war in Iran is very unpopular,” Morris explained. “Not merely negative-number-so-what unpopular, but worst-ever-support-for-war-when-it-started unpopular. With just 38% of Americans in favor, support for bombing Iran is lower than retrospective support for the war in Iraq was in 2014.”
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