Donald Trump is facing criticism from the left and the right after he tapped Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), to serve as acting director of national intelligence despite his lack of experience.

Trump made the surprise announcement Tuesday on social media that Pulte would be replacing Tulsi Gabbard, who had served as the director of national intelligence before resigning last month after revealing her husband’s cancer diagnosis.

Pulte has no military or intelligence experience and seems to have been elevated to the role simply because he remains a loyal ally and is willing to use his position at the FHFA to target several of Trump’s perceived enemies for alleged mortgage fraud.

Pulte has made criminal referrals over allegations of mortgage fraud by public officials Trump sought to punish, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Lisa Cook, a Joe Biden nominee to the board of the Federal Reserve.

The prosecution against James was dismissed, while referrals against Schiff and Cook have not yielded any criminal charges.

Now Democrats and some of Trump’s own supporters are raising questions about what national security expertise Pulte brings to the role amid Trump’s war of choice with Iran. There are also concerns that Pulte might undermine the credibility of the US intelligence community.

“The concern is not only that Mr. Pulte lacks the ‘extensive national security experience’ required by statute for the job, which was created after intelligence failures led to the deaths of thousands of Americans on 9/11. It is that he appears to have been selected precisely because the White House believes he will provide the narrative it wants, not the intelligence we need,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va), vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. 

“The president has chosen an official who has demonstrated not just willingness but eagerness to use the authorities of government to pursue political retribution,” Warner added.

“Bill Pulte is a partisan thug with no experience in intelligence,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in the post on  X. “He is another unqualified Trump appointee that will make our country less safe. And you won’t hear a word from the Republicans who claim to care about national security.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters, “we don’t need a weaponized” director of national intelligence. “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.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, said Pulte is not qualified “even by Trump Administration standards.”

“He has no relevant experience and his sole qualification is unconditional devotion to Donald Trump,” Himes wrote on Twitter. “Since there will be no senate confirmation (of course), it is critical that Pulte go through a full security clearance process before he walks into the building.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Pulte has been “abusing his authority” as the federal housing finance director and that Trump is now “rewarding his lackey — who has no national security experience — with a perch atop our nation’s intelligence community. What could go wrong?”

Conservative radio host Erick Erickson slammed Pulte’s appointment in a post on Twitter, writing, “Bill Pulte is one of the worst members of the President’s team and has convinced Trump to do more stupid stuff than anyone else in the past year. He’ll be driven to work in a very short bus each day.”

Veteran GOP political operative Matt Mackowiak wrote, “This is indefensible.”