Unlikely enforcers shape Trump's "weaponization" crusade
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A housing regulator, a prosecutor rejected by the Senate and a former Democrat have emerged as the unlikely faces of President Trump's "weaponization" crusade.
Why it matters: In a sea of Trump loyalists, these three officials — Bill Pulte, Ed Martin and Tulsi Gabbard — stand out for how aggressively they've shattered norms in pursuit of the president's enemies.
1. Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has used his 3 million followers on X to reinvent the sleepy mortgage regulator as a platform for political combat.
- Pulte has elevated allegations of mortgage fraud against two of Trump's top antagonists, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Both are now under criminal investigation.
- Pulte also has led the campaign to oust Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, calling for him to resign — or be fired — over cost overruns in the Fed's $2.5 billion headquarters renovation.
- On Wednesday, Pulte escalated Trump's war on the central bank by accusing Fed governor Lisa Cook of mortgage fraud. Trump responded by calling for Cook to resign.
2. Martin, a conservative activist who defended Jan. 6 rioters, was named the Justice Department's weaponization czar after his nomination to be U.S. attorney for D.C. collapsed in the Senate.
- In his brief time as acting U.S. attorney, Martin demoted prosecutors who had worked on Jan. 6 cases, vowed to pursue legal action against critics of Elon Musk's DOGE initiative, and attempted to launch an investigation into Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
- Now leading the DOJ's probe of James, Martin stunned ethics experts by showing up outside the New York attorney general's Brooklyn home in a trench coat and posing for tabloid photos.
- Martin's conduct in the case has violated Justice Department rules and norms barring prosecutors from commenting on specific cases, and turning investigations into public spectacles.
3. Gabbard, Trump's director of national intelligence, sent shockwaves through the intel community by accusing former Obama officials of a "treasonous conspiracy" stemming from the 2016 Russia probe.
- Her allegations — now the subject of a criminal grand jury investigation — have electrified Trump's base and seem to have turned the former Democratic congresswoman into one of the president's favorite Cabinet members.
- Gabbard went further this week, revoking the security clearances of 37 current and former national security officials she claimed had manipulated or leaked classified intelligence.
- Then on Wednesday, she approved plans to slash ODNI's staff by 40% — extending Trump's purge of an intelligence community he has long viewed as hostile.
What they're saying: "Over the last 20 years, ODNI has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence community is rife with abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence, and politicized weaponization of intelligence," Gabbard said in a statement.
- "Anyone who engages in criminal activity should be held accountable. No one is above the law. President Trump's only retribution is success and historic achievements for the American people," a White House official told Axios.
The big picture: Trump's fixation with the "weaponization" of government stems from his own years under investigation: the Russia probe, two impeachments and a cascade of criminal prosecutions after he left office.
- On his first day back, Trump ordered agencies "to identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct" related to what he saw as the Biden administration's weaponization of government.
- In practice, critics say that mandate has translated into a campaign of revenge — or weaponization itself — against Trump's enemies.
