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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Joseph Gedeon in Washington

Trump’s intelligence chief pick puts surveillance program renewal in doubt

a man speaks into a microphone outside
Bill Pulte at the White House in Washington DC on 2 September 2025. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

Donald Trump’s appointment of a close political ally with no intelligence experience to lead the nation’s spy agencies has thrown last-ditch efforts to renew a powerful surveillance program into doubt.

Bill Pulte, now head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and a major Republican donor and heir to a home construction fortune, was tapped by Trump to serve as acting director of national intelligence days after Tulsi Gabbard departed the role.

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