- President Trump announced on Tuesday that he was naming Bill Pulte, a home-building heir who runs the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to be the acting director of national intelligence, replacing Tulsi Gabbard. The move has drawn criticism as Mr. Pulte has no known experience for a national security role.
President Trump on Tuesday named Bill Pulte, who in his role running a federal housing agency pressed for investigations into the president’s political foes, to serve as acting director of national intelligence, giving him oversight of the United States intelligence agencies.
Mr. Pulte has no known background in intelligence, military or national security, but he is a Trump loyalist who has been among the most aggressive advocates for prosecuting Democrats and others perceived by Mr. Trump as having crossed him. He will replace Tulsi Gabbard, who announced last month that she was stepping down to care for her husband, who is suffering from cancer.
Mr. Pulte will continue to run the housing agency while taking on the position of director of national intelligence.
Mr. Pulte did not respond to a message seeking comment.
On paper, the director of national intelligence, a role created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is among the most powerful of cabinet positions, responsible for coordinating the work of the C.I.A. and a host of other agencies. But Mr. Trump has never seen it as an important role, his advisers have said previously, and in his first term, he believed the staff working for that office were leaking information about him.
The fact that Mr. Pulte will serve in an acting role, as opposed to facing Republican senators during a confirmation hearing for the job, could give him a freer hand in focusing on priorities the president cares about, including looking for evidence that his election loss in 2020 stemmed from fraud, something that Ms. Gabbard was already pursuing.
In announcing the appointment on his social media platform, Mr. Trump said, “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.”
Mr. Pulte already has become a lightning rod within the administration. Throughout 2025, while he was leading the Federal Housing Finance Agency, he used social media to accuse some of Mr. Trump’s perceived enemies of committing mortgage fraud. His tactics infuriated and frustrated officials at the White House, as well as prosecutors and leadership at the Justice Department.
But his actions earned Mr. Trump’s deep appreciation and admiration, and the president was eager to take Mr. Pulte’s phone calls.
The move came as Mr. Trump was giving John Solomon, a journalist who the president favors and who has been deeply critical of some of the investigation into whether the 2016 Trump campaign conspired with Russians, a role as a special government employee leading a “transparency” task force.
It also came on the heels of Republican senators condemning Mr. Trump’s plan to create a $1.8 billion, taxpayer-funded “weaponization” fund to settle his own lawsuit against his government over his tax returns having been leaked during his first term. The administration signaled on Monday that it was backing off that plan.Show more
June 2, 2026, 12:25 p.m. ET39 minutes ago
Representative Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said that Pulte’s appointment “is potentially catastrophic for national security.” In a statement Himes noted Pulte’s lack of intelligence experience and said the president’s decision to appoint him to the job “makes a mockery of the very real national security challenges our nation faces.”
June 2, 2026, 12:18 p.m. ET46 minutes ago
Senator Elissa Slotkin, Democrat of Michigan, is visibly seething about Pulte’s nomination. “As someone who helped start the D.N.I. office when we had massive intelligence failures, the idea that we would have someone who has so openly and proudly weaponized the current agency that he’s confirmed for, I think it’s a nonstarter — and people should be ashamed of themselves for putting him forward,” she said.
June 2, 2026, 12:14 p.m. ET50 minutes ago
Senator James Lankford, a conservative Republican of Oklahoma who serves on the Intelligence Committee, remained noncommittal about Pulte. “I don’t know any of his background experience on intel; I don’t know at this point,” he said. About concerns Pulte would weaponize the administration’s top intelligence post, Lankford said, “That should be a neutral role.”
June 2, 2026, 12:00 p.m. ET1 hour ago
Cornyn is among the handful Republicans expressing skepticism over Pulte’s nomination, though he said, “I’m willing to listen.” Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a member of the Intelligence Committee, said that she was unclear about whether Pulte has ever held a security clearance, “I do not know his background or whether he has any intelligence experience,” she said. “I truly know nothing about him.”
June 2, 2026, 11:48 a.m. ET1 hour ago
Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas who last week lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger, said that he saw “no evidence of any qualification” for Pulte to serve as the director of national intelligence, although he noted that the Senate plays no role in confirming acting cabinet officials.
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State Department
June 2, 2026, 10:57 a.m. ET2 hours ago
The Trump administration is not offering to remove sanctions on Iran or allow it access to frozen funds in return for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. “That’s not been discussed, that’s not been offered,” Rubio says. “Any sanctions relief is condition-based, which means it has to be in return for the reason why those sanctions were put in place in the first place, which is their nuclear program.”
June 2, 2026, 10:40 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Secretary of State Marco Rubio tells senators that an interim deal with Iran “could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week” but says there is no guarantee that such a deal will be “acceptable to the Senate or acceptable to the American people.” Rubio is testifying before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about the State Department’s annual budget request in a hearing sure to cover a broad variety of foreign policy matters.
More Administration News
June 2, 2026, 12:39 p.m. ET25 minutes ago
Rubio makes it clear that President Trump’s claim on Monday that he “had a very good call with Hezbollah” was inaccurate. “It came from Hezbollah, but through Lebanese authorities,” Rubio says. No president has communicated with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group in Lebanon that the U.S. considers a terrorist organization. Rubio says Trump’s post on social media referred to a message to the U.S. from Lebanon’s government that Hezbollah will not attack Israel if Israel refrains from striking Beirut.
June 2, 2026, 12:14 p.m. ET50 minutes ago
Reporting from Washington
Congress will consider restricting how the military uses A.I.
Congress is considering legislation that would restrict how the Pentagon uses artificial intelligence, as the Defense Department battles a leading company developing the technology over what the limits should be.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, introduced new legislation on Wednesday aimed at strengthening regulations on how the military uses A.I.
Ms. Gillibrand introduced the measure as a stand-alone bill, but she also plans to introduce the proposals as amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act. The House Armed Services Committee is debating a version of that bill this week, and the Senate is expected to begin its markup of the legislation next week.
Democrats who want more aggressive regulation of how the military uses A.I. are reaching out to Republicans, hoping that they can earn a measure of bipartisan support. Democratic staffers noted that Vice President JD Vance has voiced broad support for the basic principles the measures are trying to codify.
In one sign of a degree of bipartisan support, another A.I. bill — written by Senator Elissa Slotkin, Democrat of Michigan — is expected to be incorporated into the Senate’s current version of the defense authorization bill. Ms. Slotkin’s measure would in effect codify protections that artificial intelligence companies have requested as they negotiated deals with the Pentagon this year.
Those protections include bans on using the technology for domestic surveillance, to control autonomous drones or to launch nuclear weapons.
While OpenAI, Google and other firms agree to abide by the “any lawful use” standard the Defense Department pushed, another company, Anthropic, failed to reach an agreement with the Pentagon. Anthropic executives believed the deal did not adequately protect their artificial intelligence model from use for domestic surveillance or to command autonomous drones.
When talks broke down, the Pentagon designated Anthropic as a “supply-chain risk to national security,” potentially barring military contractors from doing business with the firm. Anthropic has sued to overturn that decision.
The Slotkin proposal restricts the Pentagon’s use of autonomous weapon systems but allows the defense secretary to give a waiver to allow the technology to be deployed.
Ms. Gillibrand’s bill makes some exceptions for cybersecurity, missile interceptors, base and ship defenses and semiautonomous weapons. But for other situations, the Defense Department would have to get congressional approval for using A.I. to control most autonomous weapons the Pentagon might seek to use in combat.
“Lethal decisions require a conscience, not just an algorithm, and a machine shouldn’t make those types of decisions,” Ms. Gillibrand said in an interview. “A.I. can be a critical tool in decision making, but it really lacks the important elements of humanity. It doesn’t have the capacity for love, loss or grief, and those types of human impacts are necessary to make hard decisions about targeting.”
There is at least some bipartisan support for ensuring that humans, not artificial intelligence, make strike decisions in warfare. At a commencement speech at the Air Force Academy on May 28, Vice President JD Vance invoked the recent encyclical by Pope Leo XIV, which argued the decision to use lethal force must remain under human control.
“If the warfare of the future is to live up to the moral values of our ancestors, decisions over life and death must be made by humans and not machines,” Mr. Vance said.
The Pentagon’s policy on autonomous weapons is often described as requiring a “human in the loop” — a person involved in the decision making process to carry out a lethal strike. But the actual policy is more nuanced.
The policy, which was drafted in 2012 and updated three years ago, does not fully ban autonomous weapons, though it requires senior-level review before any such system is developed or used. Congress has required the reporting of any deployment of lethal autonomous weapons through 2029.
At a Senate hearing in May, Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s top technology officer, said that the policy on autonomous weapons needed to be updated given advances in the capabilities of adversaries and the lessons learned from the war against Iran.
At the hearing, Senator Jodi Ernst, Republican of Iowa, noted that the Pentagon had proposed spending $55 billion on its office that develops autonomous and semiautonomous weapons, the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group. She said the current policy was not designed for artificial intelligence driven targeting or other innovations.
In addition to its restrictions on autonomous weapons, Ms. Gillibrand’s bill includes provisions requiring artificial intelligence labs to report if their models are stolen, their supply chains compromised or their data is corrupted.
It also has tough restrictions on using artificial intelligence for domestic surveillance. It includes prohibitions on using commercial or hacked data to analyze information on Americans. The bill also prohibits the Defense Department and military intelligence agencies from developing any artificial intelligence models meant to assign a risk score to Americans or make any sort of predictive assessment of a threat.
Chinese companies have been researching how to use A.I. to power predictive surveillance technology, not just to identify political dissidents but also to predict who might become a critic of the state. While there is no evidence the Pentagon is engaged in such activity, Ms. Gillibrand’s measure could model how to expand the ban on such predictive assessments to other government agencies.
Ms. Gillibrand said the fight between Anthropic and the Pentagon was a “red flag” that the Defense Department was at least considering use of the technology domestically.
“I think that was front and center in the Anthropic fight,” Ms. Gillibrand said. “So we made sure that under no circumstances should A.I. be able to surveil American citizens under the under the Department of Defense.”Show more
June 2, 2026, 12:10 p.m. ET54 minutes ago
Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, expressed frustration over the deal that granted President Trump, his family and businesses immunity from ongoing inquiries into their taxes. “We’re talking about family members that have had almost a doubling of their net worth over the last year and a half. How can you not at least have them be subject to the same thing that I’m subjected to and every one of you?” he told reporters on Tuesday.
June 2, 2026, 12:08 p.m. ET56 minutes ago
New guidelines threaten federal financial aid for students in graduate arts programs.
The Education Department is finalizing guidelines for an earnings test that would punish nearly half of all graduate programs in visual arts, music and performance based on the low income of recent alumni, according to the government’s calculations.
The proposed guidelines apply to all university programs, and institutions whose alumni fail to meet them twice in three years could lose their ability to enroll students using federal loans. Those students would most likely need to transfer to other programs or quit their education. According to experts, that would lead to a sharp decrease in enrollment and the likelihood of school closures.
For master’s degree programs, the agency would calculate the earnings of alumni four years after graduation to see whether they earn more than the median salary for working adults aged 25 to 34 who have a bachelor’s degree. Previous tests measured all programs against the salary of working adults with high school diplomas — a lower threshold for universities to pass.
“They are taking a DOGE approach to education,” said Tom Eccles, who runs the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, adding that most universities were just learning about the guidelines. “They are deciding what the metric is, as though there were an objective way to measure the value of an arts education.”
Most students pursuing an arts degree know that becoming the next Picasso or Lady Gaga is a long shot, and that an arts degree is unlikely to have an immediate payoff. A preliminary analysis of the economic data released by the Education Department shows that many of the country’s top arts programs would not pass the revised earnings test.
Yale University’s master’s programs in visual arts and music would fail.
Harvard University’s master’s degree in museum studies would fail.
The Juilliard School’s undergraduate and graduate programs in music would fail.
“Juilliard believes that the proposed earnings test is not a reliable measure of institutional quality or graduates’ success in fields such as the performing arts,” the school said in a statement. “Accountability frameworks should reflect the diverse ways graduates build careers and contribute to society, rather than relying on a single measure that may not accurately capture the value of their education and their potential.”
The Education Department did not respond to questions about the earnings test, a provision inserted into last year’s sweeping domestic policy bill, which passed on party lines. The agency has a July deadline to finalize its guidelines, and some experts believe that the income expectations might be eased before they take effect in the fall of next year.
The rising cost of higher education — annual tuition for an undergraduate degree can reach $90,000 — has legislators interested in holding colleges accountable for programs that provide a low financial return on investment. The Senate committee overseeing education helped introduce the earnings test’s updated guidelines.
“Higher education’s mission, regardless of degree, should be to prepare students for successful careers after graduation,” Stephen Lewerenz, a spokesman for the committee, said. “If colleges are saddling students with debt and degrees that leave them worse off, they should not be subsidized by American taxpayers.”
Dozens of arts programs have closed in recent years, with officials citing low enrollment, high overhead costs and increased competition from research universities. Cultural meccas like Nashville and San Francisco no longer have private colleges specializing in visual arts.
Jordan Matsudaira, the chief economist at the Education Department under the Biden administration, said the agency’s accountability measures were designed to target for-profit schools.
“The law is responding to a real problem in higher education: that often prices are set in a way that is not realistic relative to a student’s ability to pay it back,” said Matsudaira, who now teaches public administration and policy at American University. “But, on the other hand, there are a lot of programs that are producing value that just don’t show up in people’s paychecks. We need to find a way to fund those programs.”
According to the Education Department’s calculations, 90 percent of religious studies graduate students and 100 percent of recipients of culinary certificates would fail the new earnings test.
Analysts say the failing programs would account for six percent of higher education degrees. The conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute has determined that about 644,000 students would be affected.
Students who were enrolled last year in the arts master’s programs that would fail the new guidelines have close to $311 million in federal loans.
“The future of arts education depends on federal policy,” said Deborah Obalil, the president and executive director of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. “This metric and the way it has been designed will exacerbate issues of access to studying the arts.”
The Education Department received nearly 8,800 public comments on the new measures, with many critiquing them.
“A high school graduate entering welding will almost certainly out-earn a film school-trained director or a Juilliard-trained violinist in year two,” wrote David Klein, the chief operating officer of the New York Film Academy. “However, the director’s and violinist’s contributions to our economy and society are no less vital.”Show more
June 2, 2026, 12:06 p.m. ET57 minutes ago
“The war is over,” Rubio says of the U.S. conflict with Iran. “The war is not over,” Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat, replies. The U.S. never formally declared war with Iran. Trump officials have said for weeks that a cease-fire agreement is in effect with Tehran — a phrase that usually implies a pause in hostilities to allow for peace negotiations. The U.S. military conducted several strikes against Iran last week.
June 2, 2026, 11:27 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Rubio says the war on Iran has made interactions with Tehran more complicated. Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, “is increasingly engaging at some level, although all of his communications have been in writing and through intermediaries.” It can take Iranian officials three to five days to deliver a response to U.S. proposals, he says.
Negotiations with Iran have also been delayed by “communications issues within the regime” as well as “internal fissures” among competing factions, Rubio says.
June 2, 2026, 7:55 a.m. ET5 hours ago
Rubio will testify on the State Department budget before the Senate.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio began testifying before the Senate on Tuesday morning, arguing for the State Department’s annual budget request in a session also sure to cover pressing national security issues such as President Trump’s negotiations with Iran and an intensifying U.S. pressure campaign against Cuba’s government.
Mr. Rubio, who also serves as Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, which is reviewing the State Department’s budget request for the 2027 fiscal year.
Such sessions typically turn into wide-ranging discussions of a department’s priorities, and Mr. Rubio will appear at a busy moment in U.S. foreign policy. Mr. Trump has been pursuing an interim deal with Iran that would extend an existing cease-fire, open the Strait of Hormuz and begin detailed talks on Iran’s nuclear program, and his negotiation positions and tactics have been drawing criticism from both supporters and critics of the war with Iran.
Mr. Rubio has played a key role in the Iran deliberations, as well as in U.S. policy toward Cuba, whose economy the Trump administration is choking in an effort to force Havana’s communist government into major reforms.
In past appearances before Congress, Mr. Rubio has proved an agile spokesman, firmly representing Mr. Trump’s overall views while often reinterpreting the president’s most incendiary remarks in more moderate terms.
Mr. Rubio will appear before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs for another budget hearing on Wednesday morning.Show more
June 2, 2026, 3:23 a.m. ETJune 2, 2026
Trump targets Brazil with a 25 percent tariff, citing unfair trade practices.
The Trump administration on Monday proposed a 25 percent tariff on a broad range of Brazilian imports, concluding after a trade investigation that Brazil had engaged in unfair practices that imposed burdens on American businesses.
In a news release, the United States Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, said the investigation found that Brazil had failed to adequately enforce intellectual property rights and had not taken sufficient measures to combat corruption and bribery. The administration also cited Brazil’s restrictions on access to its ethanol market, and what it described as inadequate enforcement of anti-deforestation laws.
The investigation was conducted under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which authorizes the United States to impose tariffs and other penalties in response to unfair foreign trade practices.
Mr. Greer said that he and President Trump had “several constructive meetings” with the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, over the past year, but that “substantial differences” remained over issues identified in the investigation. The United States Trade Representative is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the proposed measures on July 6.
Brazil has until July 15 to take what Mr. Greer called “responsive action” to address the issues raised in the investigation.
Brazil is one of more than a dozen countries that have come under Section 301 investigations as part of Mr. Trump’s effort to rebuild a tariff plan after key elements of his trade agenda were struck down by the Supreme Court in February. Although Mr. Trump responded with a 10 percent global tariff, a panel of federal judges ruled last month that those duties violated the law.
The Trump administration has been working to establish a more durable global tariff system by the summer, but Section 301 requires the government to conduct country-specific investigations and hold consultations and hearings before the new import taxes can take effect.
The proposed tariffs would exempt some products, including beef, coffee, rare earth metals, aircraft equipment and certain fruits and vegetables.
The move comes despite the United States maintaining a trade surplus with Brazil for the past decade. Last year, Mr. Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian imports to pressure the country to halt its prosecution of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president and an ally of Mr. Trump. The United States later rolled back the tariffs on many Brazilian goods, while the court challenges further reduced the scope of the duties.Show more
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