Bill Pulte is a dynamic American businessman and philanthropist who was appointed as Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in March of 2025. He is a successful entrepreneur and businessman who is the grandson of William P. P. McPulte, the founder of one of the nation s largest and best known homebuilders.
00:03:52.140He was appointed director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency by President Donald Trump,
00:03:58.140and in that role, he takes very seriously his charge from President Trump to make housing affordable for all Americans.
00:04:07.340Again, he has already enacted incredible reforms at that agency.
00:04:13.680Bill, let me ask you, how have inflation and the interest rates affected the current housing market?
00:04:18.780And this is a matter of personal opinion.
00:04:21.360Do you think the Federal Reserve should cut rates to create a further housing boom in America?
00:04:28.680Well, I agree with all of President Trump's comments on the Fed needing to lower rates.
00:04:32.460I would say that the inflation under Biden, and we all know this, was astronomical.
00:04:37.940And what happens for people who don't know about mortgage rates and why mortgages are so unaffordable is mortgage rates generally track inflation rates.
00:04:46.060So when inflation goes up, often mortgage rates go up.
00:04:49.700And the reason for that is basically that, you know, when inflation goes up, people want to use interest rates to keep inflation down.
00:04:57.940And so now we've got the situation that is a total mess that was created in the last four years.
00:05:03.160And, Roger, we're working every day to reverse the damage that's occurred in the last four years.
00:05:08.460I'm incredibly optimistic that the president's going to be able to turn around the housing market and make houses affordable again.
00:05:15.400But we definitely have our work cut out for us.
00:05:33.380Well, we saw a lot of fraud in the companies, and we, frankly, were frustrated with some of the poor decisions that were being made.
00:05:42.500And, you know, like any good manager, when you come in and you don't think that things are being done right, you take what the required action is.
00:05:48.480And so we went in and we took the action.
00:05:50.340And I'll tell you, the best thing we ever did was become chairman because that gives you the ability to actually control things.
00:05:58.160And when you're responsible for things, you need to be able to control the outcome.
00:06:01.800I don't know how anyone can get anything done if they're accountable for something and they have no influence on the outcome.
00:06:08.840And as you know, Roger, these companies, or said differently, anything that is affiliated in any way with the government, you know, they have almost like a deep state to them.
00:06:18.440In other words, there's these people who just do not want progress to happen.
00:06:22.500And, you know, what's funny is when you think somebody's on your side and then you find out that they really aren't, you know, that's the deep state.
00:06:31.640It's where you don't think that people are going to show up.
00:06:33.640And so we were just a fan of, you know, getting rid of the cancers that we believe were there.
00:06:39.340And then, you know, hopefully the businesses will be stronger than ever before.
00:06:42.840And I can tell you, Roger, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are stronger than ever.
00:06:47.420So you mentioned finding a lot of mortgage fraud after digging around in your new position.
00:06:51.860Is the fraud anywhere near the level of mortgage fraud that we saw in like 2007, 2008 that caused a mortgage crisis back then?
00:07:01.440But as you know, we want to avoid the slippery slope and we want to stop mortgage fraud where it is.
00:07:06.220You know, I referred Letitia James to the Department of Justice, you may have seen, for what we believe to be mortgage fraud.
00:07:14.300You know, I don't want to comment too much beyond that letter, but I would say to you, generally speaking, Roger, that, you know, there is an issue in this country where people are claiming that they live in one state and going and buying property in another.
00:07:26.780There is also a situation where people are overstating their earnings.
00:07:29.920There's also situations where people are claiming that, you know, they have more units in building or less buildings, less units in buildings in order to get access to financing that would only be available at certain levels.
00:07:40.980So, you know, we are taking a very strong approach to it.
00:07:44.500It doesn't matter, Roger, whether you're a politician or whether you have an Esquire after your name.
00:07:48.900If you commit mortgage fraud in this country, we are going to come after you, period.
00:07:55.400I forget it was who said that, but I think she's about to find out.
00:07:58.640So, Bill, your reaction to the passage last night of, I think, the single largest tax cut in American history by the House of Republicans?
00:08:07.100Well, it's following from the president's mandate.
00:08:09.300And obviously, you know, the president's mandate speaks for itself.
00:08:13.160Look at what's happening now with the House of Representatives.
00:08:15.360I'm sure the Senate will pass it in due course, hopefully, God willing, and we'll be off to the races.
00:08:20.840But look, we got a lot of work ahead of us, Roger.
00:08:22.920These last four years, what happened with inflation and what happened with housing costs?
00:08:27.340You know, President Trump doesn't get much credit, but he's been able to bring down the inflation and housing costs.
00:08:32.720And I wish that would be reported more.
00:08:36.140I saw in an interview you said there are a lot of things were put in place during the first Trump administration that the Biden administration canceled and that you have brought back.
00:08:48.000Well, we've brought just back getting rid of all of the bureaucracy, even from the Obama era, if you can believe it.
00:08:53.220I mean, we still have regulations that are just complete and utter nonsense that have been in place since Obama that were requiring all this bureaucracy, all of this reporting.
00:09:04.900Roger, I mean, we've saved almost $100 million.
00:10:28.080And frankly, if we have our way with them, which we will, they will be great American icons, once again,
00:10:32.940that have tremendous, tremendous earning power, and that inures to the benefit of the American people.
00:10:37.840The whole reason that we did what we did with the chairmanship and taking a strong approach to, you know,
00:10:43.360making sure that there are good outcomes with this situation is exactly to make sure that we can deliver on what President Trump is saying,
00:10:50.000which is making sure that these businesses are spitting out cash and doing better than ever before.
00:10:55.240I'll defer to the president in terms of what his truth post will mean.
00:11:00.060Ultimately, he will be the one making the decision on it.
00:11:02.620However, in the meantime, my main focus is on making sure that through the chairmanship,
00:11:08.040but most importantly through the directorship at FHFA, federal housing, through President Trump,
00:11:13.520that we are keeping all of our options open and running these businesses in tip-top shape.
00:11:18.520And I can tell you, Roger, when you have 16,000 employees and no one showing up at work,
00:11:23.060they were not in tip-top shape under Biden.
00:11:24.920They were in the toilet, and we're getting them back.
00:11:26.900We're getting them back up and running, and we're going to get going again.
00:11:30.660I noticed one of your critics said this on social media to give you a chance to respond to it.
00:11:36.680Somebody said that if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken public,
00:11:41.220it would cause the value of housing bonds to crash.
00:14:50.720Amazing report just the other day, which was something Barry Habib had kind of tipped us to,
00:14:55.920which is virtually all of the job creation numbers published during the Biden years were bogus.
00:15:02.240So they would project, you know, a net gain of 60,000 jobs and it got huge headlines.
00:15:09.340And then, of course, three days later, they would quietly restate that, ratcheting the numbers way down.
00:15:14.760Of course, the second story never got any coverage.
00:15:17.940So, I mean, most of the economic information that the Bureau of Labor Statistics was giving us had been cooked, cooked for political purposes, cooked to try to affect the 2024 election.
00:15:32.260I'm not sure what could be done to ensure that the information being put forward by some of these federal agencies, which sadly are still riddled with holdovers, with people who are loyal to the last regime or loyal to the institution rather than committed to the president's pro-growth, pro-opportunity agenda.
00:15:54.460But I think that it should be a high priority.
00:15:56.120I agree. And I think that, look, you got a you got a great team, a great economic team, and they're going to get to the bottom of anything I believe as it comes up or as it's been done that they believe is untoward.
00:16:07.720But, you know, in terms of our mortgage fraud, that's really where our focus is on, as you know, and making sure that there is safety and soundness in the mortgage market.
00:16:18.720But I can tell you one thing, Roger, we are laser focused on this mortgage fraud.
00:16:22.520And as I said earlier, if you are a politician or you are a famous person or you are a lawyer and you think you can get away with mortgage fraud in this country, you are underestimating what we are going to do to get rid of mortgage fraud.
00:16:37.260You know, you have sweeping powers in that area and this idea that you are somehow weaponizing the system.
00:17:04.220This isn't this isn't a polemics or propaganda.
00:17:09.040And the signed, notarized documents are what they are.
00:17:13.980And it is very compelling in the question of Attorney General Letitia James.
00:17:19.720And then she just says to the New York Times, oh, well, yes, I did sign a power of attorney in which I said that that I was going to occupy this home in Virginia.
00:17:42.580There is no such notarized application.
00:17:46.040It is amazing how the media seeks to cover for her.
00:17:51.340And then if you saw this bill, but they actually tried to move legislation in the New York state legislature where the taxpayers of New York would pay for her legal defense, her defense in action.
00:18:04.680She took not as attorney general, not in her official capacity as attorney general, but as a private citizen, actions that she took that appear to me to constitute a 22 year record of mortgage fraud.
00:18:20.260And the Democrats want the taxpayers of New York to pay for her legal defense.
00:19:19.780I saw in an interview the other day that you said when you got to FHFA, you found people working there posing as Americans, but who were not even U.S. citizens, Chinese citizens, Indian citizens.
00:19:34.300When we come back, I'm going to ask you about that.
00:19:36.540I'm also going to ask you, given your family's reputation as builders, isn't part of the housing boom the need to bring the cost of house building materials down?
00:19:49.320We'll be back with Bill Pulte to answer those questions on the other side.
00:19:53.440Please, whenever you don't touch that dial, we'll be right back in the Stone Zone in just a minute.
00:19:57.700And we're back in the Stone Zone for our final segment.
00:20:03.540He was appointed by President Donald Trump as the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, FHFA, after a stunningly successful business career.
00:21:01.480And now we're trying to wrestle them and wrestle the ascent back to normal levels.
00:21:07.100I mean, it was crazy what had gone on.
00:21:09.280We really have to give credit, Roger, to President Trump, because you look at what has happened to oil prices, which are a leading indicator for some of this.
00:21:18.800You look at what's happened with groceries.
00:21:20.820You look at what's happened with eggs.
00:21:22.520Now we're starting to see it in some of these products, Roger, and that's absolutely critical.
00:22:45.960I want to thank our guest, Bill Pulte.
00:22:48.260He is, as I say, the director of the Federal Home Finance Agency and the man who's carrying out President Donald Trump's mandate to make housing affordable again and available again.
00:23:03.960He also, as has been reported, recently sent a letter to the Department of Justice referring New York Attorney General Letitia James to that office
00:23:14.780for what his office investigators found as a serial series of actions that he and his investigators deemed as mortgage fraud.
00:23:25.480The next step will be left up to the Department of Justice.
00:23:28.780It has been confirmed by FBI Director Cash Patel that they are investigating.
00:23:34.000It's also been confirmed that a grand jury to look at those claims has been impaneled in Virginia.
00:23:43.140When the president decides whether or not he wants to take Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public, as he speculated he may do in a true social posting last night,
00:23:53.940Bill, we'd love you to come back in the Stone Zone and talk to us about the implications of that.