William Pulte’s appointment as acting director of national intelligence, a position he will hold while simultaneously remaining head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, caused remarkably bipartisan shock in Washington. Donald Trump’s adviser Steve Bannon called the Pulte announcement “a f*** you to the Deep State,” which accurately reflects Trump’s contempt for the intelligence community and his lack of interest in its work — except when it’s searching for evidence of foreign tampering in the 2020 presidential election.
Considerable ink has been spilled over Pulte’s lack of qualifications, and his new status is decidedly temporary. Nonetheless, Trump’s appalling selection presents an opportunity to review the fundamental question of whether the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) should exist at all. The nomination of Pulte’s predecessor, Tulsi Gabbard, somehow failed to prompt such a review. Thank goodness for second chances, because the ODNI’s “one ring to rule them all” approach has not and will not solve the problems it was meant to address, and it has created new ones of its own.
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