Trump Names Housing Official as Acting Intelligence Head

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News

4.1 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2026

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

P.M. Edition for June 2. President Trump has named Bill Pulte, leader of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting director of national intelligence. WSJ White House reporter Natalie Andrews discusses how Pulte has urged investigations into the president’s perceived enemies and lawmakers’ criticism of his appointment. Plus, the Trump administration is abandoning its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund after it drew broad condemnation from GOP lawmakers. And, we hear from Jason Zweig, who writes WSJ’s Intelligent Investor column, about how the year of the mega IPO is triggering changes by index providers—the firms that compile market averages like the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100–to accommodate these titanic deals. SpaceX, one of those massive IPOs, is eyeing a valuation of around $1.75 trillion. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:28.3	among real estate professionals. The Trump administration is abandoning its $1.8 billion, quote,
0:38.8	anti-weaponization fund.
0:44.3	Plus, President Trump names housing chief Bill Pulte as the acting director of national intelligence.
0:50.0	And the year of the Blockbuster IPO is changing up the world of indexes like the S&P 500. The companies that calculate which stocks go into, which market benchmarks have been making all kinds of changes to accommodate mega-IPOs like SpaceX and OpenAI and Anthropic.
1:04.6	It's Tuesday, June 2nd. I'm Alex O'Sullough for the Wall Street Journal.
1:08.9	This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.
1:19.2	President Trump today said he was appointing Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence,
1:24.7	succeeding Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned last month.
1:27.6	Pulte is a close ally of President Trump's, who leads the federal housing finance agency
1:32.1	and is chairman of the boards of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, roles that Trump said
1:36.2	Pulte would remain in while serving as acting director of national intelligence, or DNI.
1:41.4	WSJ White House reporter Natalie Andrews says Pulte has been a polarizing figure at the White
1:46.2	House. Donald Trump named him as an acting director, meaning they're not going to go through the
1:50.5	Senate confirmation process. He can serve for 210 days as acting director, so this appointment does come
1:56.4	with an expiration date. Pulte does not have national security experience, especially at this level.
	...

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