One high-ranking official in President Donald Trump's administration may soon be headed for the exits after a policy pitch went sideways.
Politico reported Monday that Bill Pulte — who is the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — is behind Trump's post about 50-year mortgages that led to swift backlash from the mortgage industry. White House officials are reportedly "furious" with Pulte over the stunt, and various MAGA figures like Laura Loomer and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) have publicly come out against the idea.
According to the outlet, Pulte approached Trump at Mar-a-Lago last weekend with a 3x5 piece of posterboard that read "Great American Presidents," and showed a picture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt with the text "30-year mortgage" on the left, and a picture of Trump with the text "50-year mortgage" on the right. Trump then posted the image to his Truth Social account, which is still live as of this writing.
"Thanks to President Trump, we are indeed working on The 50 year Mortgage - a complete game changer," Pulte tweeted on Saturday.
Gennadiy Goldberg, who is the head of U.S. rates strategy at TD Securities, criticized 50-year mortgages as "a stopgap bandaid to address affordability," and said it would also be a disadvantage to homeowners as equity would be built at a far slower rate. Typically, the earliest years of a mortgage consist of paying interest, rather than building equity.
Politico further reported that there was more "fallout" over the 50-year mortgage proposal than essentially any other policy of Trump's second term. One of the outlet's confidential sources familiar with the Mar-a-Lago incident told Politico that Pulte may have permanently soured his reputation with Trump due to the response his 50-year mortgage idea got from both the industry and from MAGA.
"The thing that became clear from this latest episode — if it wasn’t already clear — is that Bill Pulte doesn’t know the first f—— thing about how the mortgage markets operate," the source said. "After publicly humiliating the president with his moronic 50 year mortgage plan it’s safe to assume that his days are numbered.”
Pulte later appeared to backtrack, saying that 50-year mortgages were merely part of "a WIDE arsenal of solutions" Trump was proposing to address the affordability crisis. Other ideas reportedly included portable mortgages (which can switch to a different property mid-term) as well as assumable mortgages (which can be transferred to a new buyer once a property is sold).
Click here to read Politico's full report.
