Bill Pulte
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Bill Pulte is the home developer named acting Director of National Intelligence following Tulsi Gabbard's resignation. John Kiriakou describes him as "the Steve Witkoff of the intelligence community", an outsider parachuted into a specialist post.

His character assessment is secondhand and carefully separated from his competence assessment. Kiriakou, noting he has been in Washington for forty-four years, says he spent a weekend with people who know Pulte well: "he's a a good guy. He's very smart. He is completely loyal to Donald Trump and he could not find the office of the DNI if you gave him a map and a GPS unit."

On confirmation he defers to the Senate majority leader: if John Thune is right, "Pulte is not going to be confirmed. His name likely will not even be put in nomination." Kiriakou's expectation for the interim is functional rather than institutional, as acting DNI "he can do one thing that has been that has long been important to Donald Trump, and that is to fire all your enemies," and he suspects that between then and January that is precisely what will happen, after which "a serious person will be named as the DNI, or not. I mean, it could just remain vacant."

That last possibility is not a complaint in Kiriakou's mouth: he does not think the post should exist at all, see Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

See also

- Office of the Director of National Intelligence
- Tulsi Gabbard
- Donald Trump
