Bill Pulte, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), seems to get along very well with President Donald Trump and that, reports The Daily Beast, is rattling MAGA Republican feathers.
Pulte, writes Will Neal, "has reportedly made such a song and dance of pandering to the president that it’s starting to drive other aides insane."
Pulte's stunts, he writes, "using 'Ghostbusters'-themedposters as props in exchanges" with Trump, his habit of publicly bashing Trump opponents, and his emulating of the president's propensity to go off on "bizarre tangents during meetings with others," has led insiders to refer to him as "Little Trump."
Pulte made headlines most recently when he floated the idea of the federal government backing a 50-year loan program to address housing affordability.
When news broke that a team of ethics and investigations watchdogs had been fired at Fannie Mae, a government enterprise that helps keep the U.S. housing market stable, it was reported that investigators were "probing whether Pulte had improperly obtained sensitive mortgage data on key MAGA enemies, including New York Attorney General Letitia James," Neal explains.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Pulte has done all he can to please Trump, including making a donation of "several hundreds of thousands of dollars to the MAGA cause both ahead of last year’s presidential election and in previous election cycles," Neal writes.
Pulte was also seen supping with former Trump adviser Roger Stone late last year, and, Neal writes, "Pulte’s also been making an effort to get in Donald Trump Jr’s good graces."
Neal notes that there are reports that Pulte's MAGA opponents are "gathering something of a dossier" on his "perceived missteps in office," and "officials have told staffers to keep an eye out for Pulte and ensure he doesn’t approach Trump unattended."
Pulte isn't making many MAGA friends, Neal notes, pointing to the time he also got into a "tangle" with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at a recent dinner, where, according to Politico, he said he "heard Pulte was badmouthing him to the president behind his back, and became so angry he threatened to punch Pulte 'in the f—— face'."