WASHINGTON — President Trump announced Tuesday he has named Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte acting director of national intelligence, replacing the departing Tulsi Gabbard.

“William has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets, and over 10 Trillion Dollars at Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, a substantial increase from where it was just 12 months ago,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in revealing the surprise pick.

“During this period, he will remain Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and Chairman of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. Congratulations to Director Pulte!”

Pulte, the founder of Twitter Philanthropy and CEO of Pulte Capital and the grandson of home-building and real estate mogul William J. Pulte, would need to be confirmed by the Senate if nominated to take over for Gabbard on a permanent basis.

Gabbard’s last day as Director of National Intelligence will be June 30. She announced her departure last month, citing her husband Abraham’s recent bone cancer diagnosis.

Pulte, 38, has made headlines for using his post to go after the president’s political foes, having issued criminal referrals against New York AG Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif), former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud.

The housing boss also ran afoul of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who threatened Pulte that he would “punch you in your f—ing face” this past September after word got back to Bessent that Pulte had trash-talked him to the president.

Pulte, who jockeyed during the post-2024 election transition to be Trump’s Housing and Urban Development secretary, also frequents the president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said in a statement Tuesday that Trump had “chosen an official who has demonstrated not just willingness but eagerness to use the authorities of government to pursue political retribution.”

“The concern is not only that Mr. Pulte lacks the ‘extensive national security experience’ required by statute for the job, which was created after intelligence failures led to the deaths of thousands of Americans on 9/11. It is that he appears to have been selected precisely because the White House believes he will provide the narrative it wants, not the intelligence we need,” Warner added.

“Americans have every reason to worry about what happens when the official charged with overseeing everything from counterterrorism to foreign election threats is chosen for his willingness to advance the president’s political agenda rather than his experience. That is how intelligence becomes politicized, how inconvenient facts disappear, how agencies charged with protecting our democracy instead become tools to manipulate it, and how Americans are left more vulnerable to a terrorist attack.”

Reps for Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Gabbard had aligned with Trump on his priorities to investigate alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election and what she called a “treasonous conspiracy” by the Obama administration to “subvert” the 45th president’s victory in the 2016 election.

As spy chief, Gabbard had also convened a task force, known as the Director’s Initiatives Group (DIG), to declassify federal records on the JFK, RFK and MLK assassinations, so-called “Havana Syndrome” and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One member of that group, CIA special operations officer James Erdman III, testified to Congress earlier this month that there was a wide-ranging federal “cover-up” to downplay findings that SARS-CoV-2 most likely resulted from a laboratory accident in China.

Gabbard publicly supported Trump’s decision to launch Operation Epic Fury against Iran despite her past opposition to foreign intervention, testifying to the Senate in March that “the intelligence community assessed that Iran maintained the intention to rebuild and to continue to grow their nuclear enrichment capability.”

But CIA Director John Ratcliffe was more frequently praised by the president for his role in both the ongoing Middle East operation, as well as the Jan. 3 apprehension and extradition of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

Longtime Trump ally Roger Stone had been one of Gabbard’s staunchest defenders before her decision to exit, hailing the DNI head as “the most dedicated opponent of the deep state within the Trump administration.”