The nepo baby Donald Trump has installed in the nation’s top spy job was better known just a few years ago as a meme-stock hypeman chasing viral attention.
Trump’s decision to install Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence has triggered a wave of bipartisan backlash over the 38-year-old’s lack of intelligence experience and his record of using his role as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to go after the president’s enemies.
But fresh revelations about Pulte’s past have added a bizarre new layer to the exploding controversy around his appointment.
In the years leading up to Pulte’s break into Trump’s orbit and his eyebrow-raising ascent to overseeing America’s intelligence agencies, the 38-year-old grandson of homebuilding billionaire William J. Pulte was spending his time stoking the hopes of meme-stock investors who believed he would miraculously resurrect the bankrupt retail chain Bed Bath & Beyond, whose collapsing shares they were holding onto, The Bulwark has uncovered.
Along the way, Pulte engaged in bizarre antics, like hosting an event in which a man was slapped on stage with a sex toy or wearing bulletproof vests out of a purported fear that anti–Bed Bath & Beyond forces might try to kill him.
Pulte had built his online profile by launching what he called “Twitter Philanthropy” in 2019, in which he handed out large sums of money to his followers on Twitter, thereby boosting his social media accounts. (He currently boasts 2.9 million followers on X.)
In one instance, Pulte—who has publicly estimated his net worth at $200 million, according to Newsweek—promised a veteran $30,000 if Trump retweeted his post, which the president did.
Pulte’s self-promotion led him to be pushed off the board of Pulte Homes, the construction giant founded by his now-deceased grandfather, in 2020, according to The New York Times.
Meanwhile, Pulte found himself attracting attention from online communities of investors in Bed Bath & Beyond, the struggling home-goods chain whose share price briefly skyrocketed after “meme king” GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen bought a large stake in the company.
Cohen had exchanged a handful of unrelated tweets with Pulte, leading the meme-stock investors to believe he was involved in a plan to save the company.
Instead of shutting down the rumors, Pulte appeared to encourage them, participating in podcasts promoting the stock and organizing events amplifying the false belief that Bed Bath & Beyond had never really gone bankrupt and was salvageable, The Bulwark reports.
In a September 2023 livestream, for instance, Pulte wore a jacket covered in astronaut patches, suggesting the company’s stock could still go “to the moon,” according to The Bulwark.
During a December 2023 event in a Florida hangar, where attendees paid $500 for admission, internet influencer PP from ThePPShow slapped a supporter in the face with a dildo, saying, “Pulte, look at this f----ng thing!”
Soon after, Pulte was awarded a novelty trophy bearing the phrase “Bill Pulte F--ks” on one side and “Only the Young” on another—a reference to the 2020 Taylor Swift song “Only the Young” that meme-stock investors believed contained a hidden message about Pulte’s purported plan to resuscitate their shares, according to The Bulwark.
That never came to pass, of course, and The Bulwark reports that while Pulte appears to have sought to use the meme-stock traders to settle old scores with executives at Pulte Homes, he remains off the company’s board.
Pulte now takes one of the country’s top national security posts, with access to some of its most sensitive intelligence.
Trump says Pulte will maintain his posts as FHFA director and chairman of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac while juggling his new role.
The FHFA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
