Bill Pulte is the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the small independent bureau that oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and government-sponsored housing banks.
He’s also become one of Trump’s unexpected attack dogs.
Pulte, a former private equity CEO and the heir to a construction empire, has used his relatively minor federal post to spawn investigations into some of Trump’s top political enemies and to wage campaigns against other appointees the president has soured on.
The director’s recent actions serve as examples of how the Trump administration is weaponizing even the most peripheral parts of the federal government to go after the president’s opponents.
Established after the 2008 financial crisis, the FHFA was designed to operate without direct presidential control to insulate its operations from political interference. But like many other federal agencies, the FHFA’s independence has been compromised by the Trump loyalist now leading it.
Pulte, known in MAGA circles as “Little Trump,” has now set in motion investigations against Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), both of whom led probes into Trump.
Schiff was the lead manager in Trump’s first impeachment trial, while James’ office won a $454 million judgement by suing the Trump Organization over allegations of faulty business practices.
Pulte in recent months has sent the Department of Justice criminal referrals against both James and Schiff, accusing them of potentially lying to secure better mortgage rates. The claims against them are dubious for a number of reasons. However, they appear part of an emerging pattern of attack against Trump’s foes.
First, Trump publicly lashes out at his political enemies, then his political appointees use the mechanisms of the federal government to give the DOJ pretext to open investigations and potentially prosecute. Finally, Trump uses this pretext to declare the person guilty and uses the looming or ongoing DOJ investigation to further tear into and discredit his enemies.
In other words, Trump is doing what he and his allies have falsely accused Democrats of doing for years: manipulating the bureaucracy to go after political opponents.
Federal judges, too, appear to be picking up on this pattern.
In the ongoing trial over the Trump administration’s effort to deport pro-Palestinian student activists, District Judge Willliam Young this week questioned whether Trump’s public remarks against his enemies ever inspire his appointees to take action.
The judge compared Trump’s attacks to an infamous quote attributed to Henry II of England: “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” Though not a direct order, the king’s musing led some of his knights to assassinate Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The president “doesn’t have errant knights, but he’s got Stephen Miller,” Young, a Reagan-appointed judge, said. “As he talks, the lower level people look into the contracts, look into the housing situation in the Schiff case. And things happen or don’t happen.”
“It’s a concerning pattern,” the judge added.
Asked this week what he makes of the investigation into Schiff, Trump claimed he hasn’t been involved.
“I stay out of it purposely,” Trump said just moments before saying that Schiff “really did a bad thing.”
“It’s very simple. It’s mortgage loan fraud,” the president added. “They have him 100% on mortgage fraud.”
Days earlier, the president published one of Schiff’s mortgage documents on social media and said the senator should be prosecuted.
“Adam Schiff is a THIEF!” the president claimed. “He should be prosecuted, just like they tried to prosecute me, and everyone else — The only difference is, WE WERE TOTALLY INNOCENT, IT WAS ALL A GIANT HOAX!”
It’s unclear exactly how Trump obtained the document. But just minutes before he shared it, the president sang Pulte’s praises, congratulating him “on the outstanding job he is doing.”
“KEEP MOVING FORWARD, WILLIAM, DON’T LET THE RADICAL LEFT WEAKLINGS STOP YOU!” Trump said.
So far, the investigations haven’t led to charges against Schiff or James. However, for some Trump officials, questionable public allegations of wrongdoing against Trump’s enemies are themselves achievements.
“If they can’t be charged, we will name them,” Ed Martin, Trump’s former acting U.S. attorney for D.C. who now heads the DOJ’s vague weaponization task force, said earlier this year. “And we will name them, and in a culture that respects shame, they should be people that are ashamed.”
In keeping with this “name and shame” strategy, Pulte over the past weeks has made dozens of public aspersions against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. He’s incessantly called on the chairman to resign or be fired — even going so far as to draft a dismissal letter for Trump to give Powell, according to the New York Times.
Pulte’s claims against Powell have been in tandem with Trump’s increasing criticism of the chairman over his monetary decisions and concerns about tariff-induced inflation.
Using the FHFA’s official letterhead, Pulte earlier this month urged Congress to investigate Powell, claiming the chairman lied under oath about renovations to the Federal Reserve’s office building.
“He doesn’t like our great president,” Pulte claimed of Powell in a recent Fox Business interview. “He’s a bad guy. There’s gonna be more coming out.”
