Wednesday 24 June 2026
Michael Warren /

How Trump’s Pulte Appointment Is Scrambling the Senate

A carefully negotiated reauthorization for Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is now in question.
A man in a dark suit with lightning bolts emanating from his head thinks of a chess piece and two figures silhouetted against a red circle.
Illustration by Noah Hickey/The Dispatch (Photos via Getty Images).

Donald Trump giveth, and Donald Trump taketh away: It’s a frustrating fact for anyone who wants to accomplish anything substantive in Washington these days. Sen. Tom Cotton, the policy-minded Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is all too familiar with the bipolar reality, as recent events have borne out.

Michael Warren is a politics editor at The Dispatch and is based in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the company in 2023, he was an on-air reporter at CNN and a senior writer at the Weekly Standard. When Mike is not reporting, writing, editing, and podcasting, he is probably spending time with his wife and three sons.

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