From The Political Scene: Donald Trump’s Dangerous Politicization of America’s Spy Agencies

Jun 30, 2026 37 min

About this episode

The Washington Roundtable is joined by Jeff Stein, the veteran political reporter and founding editor of the newsletter “Spytalk,” to examine Donald Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as the new acting Director of National Intelligence, a position that, in theory, oversees the C.I.A., N.S.A., F.B.I., and fifteen other agencies. Pulte has no intelligence background and no national-security experience, but does have a track record of going after the President’s perceived enemies. Plus, the panel discusses a recent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/06/21/tulsi-gabbard-her-guru-mysterious-messages-that-helped-shape-her-political-career/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Washington Post investigation</a> that raised new questions about the outgoing director, Tulsi Gabbard, and her alleged ties to a religious cult. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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