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analysis
In order to win the midterm elections, the US President is even risking a dispute with his own party.
June 18, 2026, 7:56 p.mJune 18, 2026, 7:56 p.m
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel are living proof that you can get to the top in the Trump administration despite obvious incompetence, as long as you carry out the boss’s orders without resistance. Tulsi Gabbard, previously Director of National Intelligence (DNI), is not the brightest candle in the Trump cake, and her experience in intelligence matters is limited.
Gabbard resigned, ostensibly to care for her ailing husband. That’s why the position needs to be filled, and Trump has chosen a man who makes the people listed above appear to be true professionals, a certain Bill Pulte.
Resigned: Tulsi Gabbard.Image: keystone
First of all: what kind of job is it? The National Intelligence was founded after 9/11. At that time it became clear that communication among the American secret services, especially between the CIA and the FBI, was poor. The DNI is therefore the supreme head of all secret services. His job is to ensure smooth communication between them.
This job is very demanding. “Intelligence work is not just about knowing secrets,” notes John Sipher, a former CIA agent, in an op-ed in the New York Times. “It is a profession with high standards, knowledge, legal rules, analytical discipline and the ability to assess the risks of secret operations.”
Bill Pulte has none of these skills because he has never spent a second of his life in a secret service or similar organization. Rather, as a real estate tycoon, he generously supported Trump’s election campaign and ingratiated himself with the president as a special-class flatterer. As a reward for this, he received the job of head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
In this role, Pulte has proven that he will not let law or morality stop him from carrying out the president’s wishes. He had the mortgages of his political enemies searched for alleged cheating and thought he had found what he was looking for with Adam Schiff, a Democratic senator, and Laetitia James, the New York state attorney general.
The case against him was dropped: Senator Adam Schiff.Image: keystone
Schiff played a key role in the impeachments against Trump, and James secured his conviction in a civil lawsuit. However, the two crimes allegedly uncovered by Pulte have turned out to be nothing more than warm air and the proceedings have now been dropped.
Nevertheless, Trump considers Pulte to be a “brilliant guy” and has appointed him as a provisional DNI. This was too much even for various members of the Grand Old Party. Tom Thillis, Republican Senator from North Carolina, said what everyone knows: “This appointment makes no sense. Pulte is a sycophant.”
What’s more, Pulte is also a threat to national security. Because Trump is not demanding professional intelligence work from him – secret services are already suspicious of the president – but rather help for the coming midterm elections. As DNI, he has access to every source imaginable and is therefore potentially in a position to reveal unpleasant secrets of the president’s political opponents. He also gains access to the electoral registers and can therefore reveal alleged election fraud.
Senate wanted to outwit Trump
However, as acting director, as provisional director, Pulte can remain in office for a maximum of 210 days. That lasts until the midterm elections. But the Senate wants, or rather wanted, to prevent even this. To calm the angry senators, Trump immediately proposed a definitive contender for the office, Jay Clayton, the current head of the Southern District of New York, a major investigative organization. His competence is also controversial, but his choice is at least justifiable.
The Senate therefore wanted to dupe Trump. Clayton was supposed to be fast-tracked through, with the approval of Republican and Democratic members, and installed before Tulsi Gabbard’s term expired. This would have rendered Pulte itself obsolete as a provisional DNI.
The President thwarted this plan by withdrawing Clayton’s nomination and now making it dependent on the Senate first passing a law that would provide for more difficult voting rules. However, because of the filibuster (don’t ask), this bill has no chance of passing in the Senate.
Trump is therefore on a collision course with his own senators, at a time when the air is getting thinner for him. His deal with Iran is also unpopular with some Republican senators, to put it mildly. In addition, the president’s poll numbers are in the basement. He is increasingly becoming ballast for Republican representatives and senators who want to be re-elected.
Don’t get a Porsche: Senator John Kennedy.Image: keystone
John Thune, the Republican majority leader in the Senate, repeatedly points out to Trump a mathematical problem in the Senate: that not all of his wishes can be fulfilled because of the narrow majority. However, the president doesn’t want to know anything about it. However, he will increasingly have to come to terms with it. Or as John Kennedy, a Republican senator from Louisiana, put it: “I also want a Porsche for my birthday. But I won’t get one.”