Trump, Pulte spotlight 'Great American Mortgage' plan

Housing regulator Bill Pulte has posted a video that sheds a little more light on the Great American Mortgage Corporation, an entity President Trump has hinted earlier could be headed toward a public offering this year.

The video Pulte posted on X promotes President Trump's housing role and alludes to his criticism of other policymakers' reluctance to lower rates. It also connects two government-sponsored enterprises Pulte oversees with GAMC.

"They say that home is where the heart is, our safe place where we put down roots. But that dream has been devastated by a housing market in decline," a narrator says in the video, which starts with images of homes but then shifts to a view of an interest-rate chart and rent check.

Further narration indicates President Trump plans to address affordability concerns through the "all new Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac" and "go down as the greatest housing president in history."

A focus on building value around national branding

"The Great American Mortgage Corporation" is listed under the two government-sponsored enterprises' names and the video closes with the narrator saying, "Together we're making homebuying great again," a variation on President Trump's political slogan.

That confirms the common perception that the entity mentioned in Trump's earlier post about a public offering has something to do with reform plans for the two GSEs, which have been in conservatorship since a housing crash in 2008 but have since re-established solid profitability.

The Great American Mortgage Corporation name is in line with the new branding assigned to the Federal Housing Finance Agency that Pulte heads and Fannie and Freddie's joint-venture common securitization platform this year.

Pulte rebranded the FHFA he heads as "U.S. Federal Housing," and now calls the joint venture originally formed to facilitate common securitization for Freddie and Fannie "U.S. Financial Technology."

The video suggests the Great American Mortgage Corporation could be umbrella branding for Fannie, Freddie and U.S. Fintech.

It could also allude to a merger of Fannie and Freddie, which some support as potentially efficient, but detractors view as anti-competitive and potentially fraught with legal complexities.

Some speculation holds that U.S. Financial Technology could be the entity that a Trump administration interested in retaining a government stake in the enterprises may want to publicly list on the New York Stock Exchange.

Pulte recently revived a past plan to allow private companies to use the GSEs' joint-venture common securitization platform.

The larger context around Pulte, Trump and the GSEs

Both Pulte and Trump have family ties to the housing market. Pulte is the grandson of a homebuilding executive. The Trump family has a history of real estate investing. Both frequently use social media to announce or provide updates on policy changes. 

Pulte has said that his use of social media to make informal policy announcements stems from his interest in getting the word out about new initiatives as quickly as possible, so they may be works in progress.

The role GSE reform would play in the public offering Trump envisions may still be unsettled. He has reportedly been fielding bank executive pitches on how it should be handled, according to Bloomberg.

Policy initiatives Pulte has announced since confirmation as FHFA director include: GSE workforce cuts and a return to the office, a commitment to adding VantageScore, consideration of crypto holdings when qualifying borrowers, and a fraud crackdown with political overtones.