President Donald Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte to be acting director of the Office of National Intelligence may well spell the beginning of the end for the agency that was created as a direct response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.Pulte — a successful money market manager who worked in his family’s residential home building business — is, by bipartisan consensus, eminently unqualified for the job as the nation’s top spymaster. Which by statute requires the position to be filled only by someone with “extensive national security expertise.”Pulte likely won’t be on the job long once he takes over on an interim basis on June 19 from Tulsi Gabbard, former congresswoman and retired Army Reserve lieutenant colonel. Trump said on June 11 he will nominate Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be Gabbard’s permanent replacement. Clayton was chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission for much of Trump’s first, nonconsecutive term.
Bill Pulte is the incoming acting director of the Office of National Intelligence. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
But having Pulte in the intelligence chief’s role for even a short time reflects Trump’s low opinion of the job. And foreshadows the likely demise of ODNI.
