‘pulte Got Really Scared’: Inside The White House Debate Over Trump’s Elections Speech

President Donald Trump's Thursday night speech was far tamer than some of his closest aides feared.

Acting director of national intelligence Bill Pulte, a favorite of the president's, had in the days leading up the speech pushed to reveal the names of intelligence officials accused of concealing election interference from Trump, according to two senior officials granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.

That set off a scramble inside the White House with senior officials, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, fearing that it could undermine the president's broader point about election vulnerabilities and put intelligence analysts' lives at risk, the two officials said.

They argued to Pulte that naming individuals involved in an alleged cover up of election fraud could lead to conspiracy theorists to take the law into their own hands.

Pulte, who flew to New York with Trump on Friday, did not respond to a request for comment but the two officials said he backed down.

"Pulte got really scared by the whole thing and pulled back," said one of the two senior officials. "He got POTUS all spun up and then was incredibly scared when he realized people could die with his reckless behavior."

Simultaneously, several Trump officials urged the president to remain restrained and on script, a notoriously difficult task for the president, whose aides often learn what the president is going to say as he says it.

"They explained the way to be taken seriously is not to be crazy," the senior official told POLITICO.

The combination of a full-court press from some aides and Pulte’s retreat convinced the president to stay “on the rails” as the senior official put it.

“President Trump and millions of Americans agree that we must have integrity in our elections, otherwise we have no country at all," said Davis Ingle, a White House spokesperson. "Congress should immediately pass the SAVE America Act.”

The acting director and former housing official, who took over for Tulsi Gabbard this month, has a history of bombastic ideas that don’t always work out as the administration might hope. He made headlines last year for recommending the Department of Justice investigate Democratic lawmakers, Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook and New York Attorney General Letitia James over unproven allegations of mortgage fraud.

None of the allegations have led to a conviction.

Pulte also advocated for Congress to investigate then-Fed Chair Jerome Powell over the renovation of the central bank’s headquarters and promoted a widely panned 50-year mortgage idea that he got Trump to champion.

Trump’s decision to allow him to temporarily oversee the intelligence community was met with bipartisan criticism from senators who felt he was underqualified.

Less than two weeks later, the White House nominated Jay Clayton, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Clayton is expected to be confirmed soon.

Trump on Thursday night declassified documents that he claimed demonstrated startling vulnerabilities in the U.S. election system. He described efforts by China to access U.S. voter rolls and offered details about long-studied risks with electronic voting machines.

The documents, some of which remain heavily redacted, tread on well-worn ground and reflect a genuine split among intelligence analysts who debated and ultimately concluded that China opted against a large-scale influence effort during the 2020 election cycle.

Pulte, according to the two White House officials, had wanted fewer redactions.

“There was going to be a lot of crazier shit said,” the White House official said.

Even Trump’s closest aides, however, don’t necessarily believe the story is over. Trump remains animated by election fraud and considers passing the SAVE America Act a top priority. Despite his Thursday speech, the legislation is unlikely to gain any new traction in Congress.

“POTUS was happy with the way the speech played,” the second official said. “But I don’t know if he’ll keep pushing this or if this was enough to get it out of his system.”