For his grandfather, the founder of PulteGroup, see William J. Pulte.

Bill Pulte
Official portrait, 2025
Acting Director of National Intelligence
Designate
Assuming office
June 30, 2026
President Donald Trump
Deputy Aaron Lukas
Succeeding Tulsi Gabbard
Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency
Incumbent
Assumed office
March 14, 2025
President Donald Trump
Preceded by Sandra L. Thompson
Personal details
Born William John Pulte
(1988-05-28) May 28, 1988 (age 38)
Boynton Beach, Florida, U.S.
Relatives William J. Pulte (grandfather)
Education Northwestern University (BA)

William John Pulte (born May 28, 1988) is an American businessman who has served as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since 2025.

Pulte is the grandson of William J. Pulte, founder of PulteGroup, a residential home construction company. He studied broadcast journalism at Northwestern University. Pulte founded Pulte Capital in 2011, a private equity firm, and founded The Blight Authority, a nonprofit that clears empty homes, in 2015. Amid a leadership dispute, Pulte was named to PulteGroup's board in 2016, serving for a four year term.

In January 2025, President-elect Donald Trump named Pulte as his nominee for director of the FHFA. He was confirmed by the Senate in March. He marked his tenure by appointing himself chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Beginning in April, Pulte began accusing Trump foes of mortgage fraud, including Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, California senator Adam Schiff, and Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook. The accusations levied against Cook, which she denied, led to calls for her dismissal as governor and a federal lawsuit.

In June 2026, Trump named Pulte as the acting director of national intelligence to succeed Tulsi Gabbard.

Early life and education (1988–2010)

William John Pulte was born on May 28, 1988, in Boca Raton, Florida.[1] He was the first son of Noreen and Mark Pulte;[2][a] Mark later married Julie.[3] Pulte's grandfather was William J. Pulte, the founder of PulteGroup, a residential home construction company.[4] In high school, Pulte worked for a construction company.[5] He graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism,[5] where he was the president of his university's chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha, in 2010. He started an aerial photography business during his time at the university.[2] At Northwestern University, Pulte met his wife, a chemical engineer.[5]

Career

Private equity (2010–2016)

After graduating, Pulte interned for Huron Capital Partners and later worked for Penske Capital Partners.[5] He founded investment firm, Pulte Capital, in 2011.[2] The company had two hundred employees and US$30 million in revenue by 2014. That year, he was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.[6]

Pulte Group (2016–2020)

In March 2016,[7] William J. Pulte began a campaign to remove PulteGroup's chief executive, Richard Dugas Jr.[8] Dugas announced that he would resign the following month amid pressure from Pulte, his grandson, and Jim Grosfeld.[9] The younger Pulte was appointed to the board in September,[10] becoming one of the youngest board members of a Fortune 500 company.[2] Following the elder Pulte's death in 2018, he was the only descendant to receive an inheritance, according to a lawsuit.[4] Pulte remained on the board until 2020, after being ousted due to disagreements with established board members.[5][11] During his tenure, he successfully blocked chief executive Ryan Marshall's proposal to promote Brandon Jones, the Michigan division president, to chief operating officer.[4] Pulte sued Jones in December 2022, claiming that he had been subject to harassment on Twitter.[4]

Philanthropy and nonprofit work

In 2019, Pulte began using Twitter as a platform for philanthropic efforts.[2] According to Pulte, he was inspired during a summer vacation[2] by Andrew Yang's pledge to give US$1,000 per month.[12] He has referred to himself as the "inventor of Twitter philanthropy." Pulte's posts often involve giveaways in which recipients must follow him, as well as promotional posts for GoFundMe campaigns. By August, he had established a team of ten people to work through charity requests.[2] Pulte brought attention to GoFundMe campaigns established for victims of the Oxford High School shooting[5] and the Uvalde school shooting.[13] By December 2022, he had garnered 3.2 million followers.[4]

By 2013, Pulte had founded[14] the Detroit Blight Authority, a nonprofit that clears empty homes and cleans up trash, leaving empty lots.[15] After Mike Duggan was inaugurated as the mayor of Detroit in January 2014, he requested that Pulte halt his efforts. Pulte since founded The Blight Authority, a nonprofit operating in Pontiac, Michigan, and—at the behest of Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey—St. Louis.[2] In November 2018, Pontiac mayor Deirdre Waterman stated that her city was set to be blight-free by the following year.[16] Pulte estimated his net worth to be US$100 million in an interview with the Detroit Free Press in December 2021.[5]

Political activities

Avatar of Donald J. Trump
Avatar of Donald J. Trump
Donald J. Trump Twitter
@realDonaldTrump

Thank you Bill, say hello to our GREAT VETERANS!

July 31, 2019 

Avatar of Bill Pulte
Avatar of Bill Pulte
Bill Pulte Twitter
@pulte

If @realDonaldTrump retweets this, my team and I will give Two Beautiful Cars to Two Beautiful Veterans on Twitter. @DanScavino

July 31, 2019 

In July 2019, President Donald Trump praised Pulte for promising to give two cars to two veterans if Trump retweeted the post.[17] Pulte told The Detroit News in 2019 that he had met Trump several times and that Trump was familiar with the Blight Authority. In 2024, he contributed heavily to Republican causes, including donating to the Republican National Committee and Trump's presidential campaign.[18]

Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (2025–present)

Nomination and confirmation

According to The Wall Street Journal, Pulte sought to become President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to serve as the secretary of housing and urban development; the position later went to Scott Turner.[19] On January 16, 2025, one day after his inauguration, Trump named Pulte as his nominee for director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).[20] Pulte appeared before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on February 20, in which he advocated for lowering housing costs and constructing more homes. The committee voted to advance his nomination in a 15–9 vote on March 6.[14] Pulte was confirmed by the Senate in a 56–43 vote on March 13. Every Republican senator and Democratic senators Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, and Ruben Gallego of Arizona voted to confirm him; Illinois senator Tammy Duckworth did not vote.[21]

Initial tenure

Pulte was sworn in as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency on March 14. He marked his tenure by assuming control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, removing eight members and six members from the boards of each, respectively. Pulte appointed himself the chairman of both boards and appointed three other members.[22] In a departure from the Federal Housing Finance Agency's traditional communications strategy, Pulte prolifically used X to document his work at the agency and solicit advice.[23] Pulte indicated that he had rescinded several policies from the Biden administration in a post on X, terminating special‑purpose credit programs and ending the Federal Housing Finance Agency's enforcement of unfair and deceptive acts or practices.[24] He ended a strategy at the Federal Housing Finance Agency that required real-estate owned foreclosed properties to be repaired before they could be sold on the market.[25]

In March 2025, Pulte removed[26] several executives at the agency, at Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, including Freddie Mac's chief executive officer and the Federal Housing Finance Agency's chief operating officer.[27] Pulte's comments citing empty offices at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as evidence that employees were not returning to work elicited concerns that he would institute mass layoffs.[28] At the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Pulte placed thirty-five unionized workers on administrative leave; according to the National Treasury Employees Union, they were not given advance notice.[29] His job cuts targeted a department that oversaw fair housing rules for the Federal Home Loan Bank system.[26] Pulte's control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac[28] occurred as several officials within the Trump administration suggested that the companies could be privatized.[26] Pulte and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent argued publicly that privatization could negatively harm mortgage rates.[26]

In April 2025, several Democratic senators questioned the legality of the board firings at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as Pulte's decision-making, in a letter sent to Pulte.[30] In a separate letter, a consortium of Republican senators conversely encouraged Pulte to continue his work.[31] That month, he issued several directives reversing diversity, equity, and inclusion policies that were established in the Biden administration.[32] Pulte claimed to have fired twenty-five percent of the Federal Housing Finance Agency's workforce and alleged that over one hundred employees at Fannie Mae were complicit in "unethical conduct".[33] In a post on X, he stated that the agency would intensify its use of the Suspended Counterparties Program to lessen apparent fraud.[34] In response to Pulte's board dismissals and his firings at Fannie Mae, Democrats on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs requested an investigation from the Federal Housing Finance Agency's inspector general.[35]

In June 2025, Pulte directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to allow cryptocurrency to be declared as an asset on mortgage applications.[36] That month, he ordered a "full-scale review" of credit bureaus.[37] In July, he allowed mortgage lenders to use VantageScore models in originating loans from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.[38] The following month, National Mortgage News reported that Pulte had decreased the number of Federal Home Loan Bank Board seats.[39] In November, Trump and Pulte publicly suggested that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could offer fifty-year mortgages, which would have lower monthly principals and interest at the expense of an extended amortization and slower equity.[40] The proposal was criticized by some housing experts as ineffective at resolving the housing affordability crisis.[41] According to Politico, Pulte's suggestion reportedly infuriated some officials in the Trump administration.[42] He signaled that fifty-year mortgages would not proceed in January 2026.[43]

The Washington Post described Pulte's approach at the Federal Housing Finance Agency as having a "Trumpian policy-by-tweet" flourish, accompanied by abrupt and unexpected decision-making.[44] According to The Wall Street Journal, he pursued policy changes without input from others or notice to officials.[19] Pulte's use of X caused indices and stocks of several companies to fluctuate, including a brief drop in the S&P 500 after he posted that Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, would resign in July 2025. Shares in FICO fell sixteen percent after Pulte questioned the use of its scores in May; his comments additionally caused shares in the credit bureaus TransUnion and Equifax to fall. In April, shares in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sharply increased by fourteen percent after Pulte cryptically posted about an imminent announcement, later revealed to be that he had appointed Omeed Malik to Fannie Mae's board of directors.[45]

In December 2025, the Federal Housing Finance Agency released a report stating that eliminating the Biden administration's quotas and goals would assist middle-class families in obtaining housing.[46] According to affordable housing advocates, Pulte's actions—including rescinding fair lending guidance documents and firing members of an affordability team at Freddie Mac—broadly worsened housing affordability for low-income buyers.[47] In June 2026, The New York Times characterized Pulte's tenure as having achieved "few tangible results".[48]

Mortgage fraud accusations

Seeking to target alleged fraud, Pulte established an email address for reporting mortgage fraud in April 2025.[49] The following month, he stated that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would coordinate to combat fraud.[50] In April, a website known as WhiteCollarFraud.com posted an apparent real-estate transaction in which Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, claimed that her primary residence was in Virginia while having a primary residence in New York. The claim was amplified by Trump, who referred to her as a "crook" on Truth Social. The following day, Pulte sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice, alleging that James may have "falsified records" to achieve favorable loans.[51] In May, The Washington Post reported that the Department of Justice was investigating James.[52] She was indicted and arraigned in October; after Lindsey Halligan's appointment as the acting United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was ruled as illegal the following month, federal prosecutors sought another indictment. Two separate federal grand juries declined to reindict James in December.[53]

In June 2025, Pulte criticized Jerome Powell and called for his resignation.[54] Leveraging his three million followers on X,[55] he continued to urge Powell's resignation in the following weeks, including by sharing a letter using the letterhead of the Federal Housing Finance Agency that baselessly claimed Powell would imminently resign.[19] In July, Pulte alleged that Powell had lied to Congress, a claim that was used by Trump to request Powell's resignation.[56] According to The New York Times, Pulte gave Trump a draft of a letter that would ostensibly fire Powell.[57] The Wall Street Journal later reported that Pulte's comments were purportedly poorly received by some officials in the Trump administration, who believed that the remarks could destabilize the market.[19] He accompanied Trump to a tour of a construction project at the Eccles Building.[55] According to Bloomberg News, Pulte motivated the Department of Justice to subpoena the Federal Reserve in its investigation into Powell.[58]

In July 2025, Trump accused California senator Adam Schiff of mortgage fraud, citing a memorandum from Fannie Mae sent to Pulte; the memorandum did not claim Schiff committed mortgage fraud.[59] The following month, Pulte wrote on X that the Federal Housing Finance Agency had referred Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook to the Department of Justice for alleged mortgage fraud. Trump used the referral to call for Cook to resign.[60] Trump later stated that he had fired Cook for cause, citing the allegations. In response, Cook sued to contest her removal, leading to a case that appeared before the Supreme Court in January 2026.[61] Pulte was involved in the ouster of Erik Siebert, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, in September 2025.[62] He advocated for Siebert's removal over claims that Siebert had deliberately delayed investigations into James and James Comey, the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. After federal prosecutors failed to find sufficient evidence to indict James, Trump dismissed Siebert and installed Halligan, the White House senior associate staff secretary, who secured indictments against James and Comey after her appointment.[63]

In an interview with CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin in September 2025, Pulte rejected allegations of "political weaponization". He refused to say if initial tips about Cook's mortgage documents came from an anonymous source or had originated with administration officials.[64] That month, six Democratic senators sent a letter to Pulte alleging that he had "abused" his position to seek retribution against Trump's foes.[65] ProPublica and Reuters reported that several members of Trump's cabinet, and Pulte's father and stepmother had improperly declared second homes as primary residences.[66][3] Pulte did not investigate or act on this news.[67]

Conflicts and inquiries

According to Politico, Pulte's actions elicited discontent from several establishment Republicans.[68] In September, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent allegedly threatened to punch Pulte at the Executive Branch club over alleged disparaging remarks that Pulte had made about Bessent to Trump,[69] a sign of tensions between the two men.[70] In June 2026, Bessent stated that his conflict with Pulte was a "locker room" fight and that he had only intended to "kick his ass".[71]

In October 2025, Reuters reported that Pulte had allegedly "skipped over his agency's inspector general when making criminal referrals", violating ethics rules.[72] Reporting in The Washington Post also highlighted Pulte's firing of dozens of employees who handle oversight at the Federal National Mortgage Association, in an alleged bid to prevent investigations into multiple complaints against a high-ranking company officer and Pulte ally.[73] The Wall Street Journal reported that the watchdogs who were removed had initiated a probe to determine if Bill Pulte "had improperly obtained mortgage records of key Democratic officials, including New York Attorney General Letitia James", following internal complaints that alleged "senior officials had improperly directed staff to access the mortgage documents of James and others".[74]

Pulte's actions have been subject to several investigations and lawsuits. In November 2025, Reuters reported that Trump had fired Joe Allen, the acting inspector general of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as Allen was preparing to inform Congress that Pulte was not complying with his office.[75] That month, The Gateway Pundit published an article alleging that California representative Eric Swalwell had listed homes in Washington, D.C., and California as primary residences. According to Reuters, Pulte forwarded the article to Allen's successor and referred the incident to the Department of Justice.[76] In November, Swalwell sued Pulte, accusing him of abuse of power[77] and violating federal privacy laws.[78] In December, the Government Accountability Office began investigating Pulte over allegations that he had abused his authority at the Federal Housing Finance Agency by investigating Trump foes.[79]

Acting Director of National Intelligence

On June 2, 2026, Donald Trump named Pulte as the acting director of national intelligence to succeed Tulsi Gabbard.[b] Pulte is set to remain as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.[48] According to Semafor, the decision was encouraged by the political advisor Roger Stone and other individuals within the MAGA movement, viewing him as someone who could declassify large volumes of information.[82] Steve Bannon cheered Pulte's nomination, and said "It's a middle finger to the Senate. A fuck you to the Deep State."[83]

Pulte's inexperience related to national intelligence work and his loyalty to Trump led to concerns from some Democrats that he would abuse his authority.[84] Some high-ranking Republicans and Cabinet members also questioned Pulte's qualifications,[85] and Senate Majority Leader John Thune remarked "Well, we don't need a weaponized DNI. We need professionals there."[86][87] His appointment complicated the passage of legislation renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act[88] after Virginia senator Mark Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told Thune that Pulte's appointment could threaten a deal to extend the act.[89]

Notes

  1. ^ Mark and Julie had five children after Pulte.[2]
  2. ^ The Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 allows an acting appointment to serve for a baseline of 210 days without Senate confirmation.[80] Trump has hinted that the appointment is temporary, and stated "It's short term, but ​he ​may be ⁠very effective for a short period ​of time."[81]

References

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