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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Robert Mackey and Joseph Gedeon in Washington

Trump presses on with plan to install Bill Pulte as acting intelligence chief

a man sits at a table
Bill Pulte, nominated to be the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, sits on the day of a Senate committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington DC on 27 February 2025. Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/Reuters

Donald Trump stood firm on his decision to install the controversial loyalist Bill Pulte as the country’s top intelligence official, demanding Congress pass a short-term extension of a surveillance law set to expire amid intense criticism of the appointment.

Pulte has been asked “to execute the immediate and needed downsizing” of the office of the director of national intelligence, the US president declared on Wednesday, after lining him up to serve as acting director on a temporary basis.

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