Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte has, improbably, become the Trump administration’s biggest hatchet man, railing against Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and others while serving as the government’s top housing regulator.

Pulte, a businessman and philanthropist, was nominated by President Donald Trump after the 2024 election to lead the FHFA, which oversees the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The role typically gets little media attention, but Pulte, who has cultivated a massive following on X over the years, has drawn notice for his willingness to attack Trump’s rivals.

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Pulte, perhaps more than anyone in the Trump administration, has targeted Powell, calling for him to resign and reportedly pushing for his firing. The FHFA director has also targeted some other high-profile Trump critics, most notably Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“Listen, I worked for the Financial Services Committee for many years, and I can’t tell you one previous person in that role,” Jason Roe, a veteran Republican consultant, told the Washington Examiner. “He’s definitely redefining the position.”

While Democrats might have expected that Trump appointees in the Justice Department would be leading the charge against people like Powell, Schiff, and James, they likely did not anticipate that Pulte would emerge as a bulldog.

Pulte’s X feed, which boasts 3 million followers, is filled with content about Powell. Trump appointed Powell to lead the Fed during his first term but has since fallen out of favor with the president for his refusal to start cutting interest rates.

“I believe Powell will be resigning soon, but today is not the day,” Pulte said on Tuesday after a fake AI-generated resignation letter began making the rounds on social media.

“Jerome Powell should RESIGN,” he said in another Tuesday post.

“I hear Jerome Powell has hired a crisis PR firm,” he wrote on Tuesday.

But Pulte hasn’t just turned his sights on Powell; in April, he also referred James to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution for alleged mortgage fraud. James gained media attention for filing a civil lawsuit against Trump and the Trump organization between his terms in office.

Additionally, Pulte sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche alleging misconduct by Schiff, who has long been a Trump antagonist.

“Based on media reports, Mr. Adam B. Schiff has, in multiple instances, falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, impacting payments from 2003-2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property,” Pulte said.

He’s even been dubbed by some as “Little Trump,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

His willingness to wade into controversy and rail against Trump’s rivals has caused his profile in the administration to rise beyond that of FHFA directors in previous administrations. Roe wondered whether Pulte might have political ambitions after the Trump administration.

“I mean, for a guy who builds luxury homes, this is a pretty interesting profile to maintain, and his decisions to get so politically pugilistic make you wonder if he’s not looking down the road at a political career for himself,” Roe said.

Before becoming head of FHFA, Pulte, 37, had a career in homebuilding. He founded Pulte Capital Partners in 2011 and served on the board of Pulte Homes, one of the country’s largest homebuilders, founded by his grandfather. Pulte also gained a big chunk of his following through “Twitter philanthropy,” giving away hundreds of thousands of dollars to causes on X, which was formerly known as Twitter.

Pulte has taken direct action outside of social media and public advocacy. For instance, Trump reportedly showed some conservative lawmakers a draft letter firing Powell, which was written by Pulte himself and given to Trump, according to the New York Times.

And Pulte’s willingness to attack has won him some plaudits.

“Director Pulte is correct, high interest rates are the enemy of a strong housing market,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “His critiques of Chair Powell’s mismanagement of the Fed, and our economy, are spot on.”

“Powell’s poor decisions are standing in the way of a booming Trump economy and American prosperity,” Stutzman added.

Pulte has justified his forays against Powell on the grounds that high interest rates affect the mortgage market, over which the FHFA has tremendous influence.

Typically (although not always), mortgage rates move in tandem when the Fed’s interest rate target falls or is expected to fall. Mortgage rates have been restrictively high for quite some time now as the Fed holds them steady.

The current 30-year fixed mortgage interest rate is 6.81%, about the same as it was a year ago. In February 2020, before the pandemic threw a wrench in the housing market, mortgage rates were significantly lower, clocking in below 4%, which made buying a home much easier.

Pulte has also pushed to accuse Powell of poor oversight over the Fed’s remodeling of its headquarters, another prong in the Trump administration’s attacks against the Fed chairman.

“They’re going to use whatever they can,” former Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI) told the Washington Examiner. Ribble noted that, while it doesn’t look good that the Fed has gone over budget, many federal projects end up in a similar situation.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought accused Powell of having “grossly mismanaged” the central bank. He used the $2.5 billion renovations at the Fed headquarters as an example of Powell’s mismanagement and lack of oversight.

Pulte is also not afraid to directly challenge lawmakers on social media. For instance, on X this week, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said that Tulsi Gabbard should not be the director of National Intelligence. Pulte shot back, “Yes, she should be.”

Pulte’s railing against Powell caused liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to send a letter to Pulte accusing him of “abnormal” behavior, citing reports that he drafted a letter firing Powell (Trump has denied that he is moving to fire Powell).

Warren told Pulte that “instead of working to fulfill your mission as regulator and conservator, you have spent recent weeks intensely focused on convincing President Trump to illegally fire Chair Powell” and requested details about his schedule.

Pulte later replied to Warren on X.

AN ATTEMPT TO FIRE POWELL WOULD FACE MAJOR LEGAL CHALLENGE

“Senator Warren sent me a letter today. My response: ‘Senator Warren, in her typical hypocritical manner, spends her own days on social media attacking President Trump and others, like Director Pulte, who are fixing the broken Biden-Powell housing market.’”

In another X post, Pulte quote-tweeted an AI-generated image of Warren wearing a Native American headdress and said that her “letter was as phony as her heritage.”