Behind Trump’s War With Powell: A Battering Ram With 3 Million Followers

At a meeting with House Republicans this month, President Trump waved a draft of a letter firing the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell.

The letter, which rattled Washington and global markets, was not written by Mr. Trump or his core economic advisers. Instead, it was drafted by Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who has used his perch and his social media prowess to become the Trump administration’s loudest critic of Mr. Powell.

The campaign against Mr. Powell has given Mr. Pulte, an heir of one of America’s largest home building families, a new prominence within the Trump administration that exceeds the usually quiet confines of the agency. A longtime social media maven, Mr. Pulte has deployed his bombastic tone and his credibility from the construction industry to argue that the Fed’s policies are hurting the housing market and that a $2.5 billion renovation of its headquarters is an example of reckless spending by the central bank.

“I believe Jerome Powell is conducting economic warfare against America,” Mr. Pulte wrote on the platform X this month.

For weeks, Mr. Pulte, who has three million followers, has called for Mr. Powell to either resign or be investigated over a renovation to the Federal Reserve building in Washington that he has said is “riddled with fraud.”

The approach has also been an opportunity for Mr. Pulte to ingratiate himself with the president, a developer. Within hours of Mr. Trump’s making a comment about his frustration with Mr. Powell’s policy on interest rates, Mr. Pulte usually takes to X with a post demanding Mr. Powell’s resignation.

The onslaught of social media posts and television appearances by Mr. Pulte has raised eyebrows in Congress and within the housing world. The public campaign has also raised questions about potential conflicts of interest and whether Mr. Pulte — and the Trump administration broadly — have any plans to jump-start home sales and improve housing affordability, beyond relentlessly attacking Mr. Powell to lower interest rates.

Mr. Pulte has not hesitated to use the housing agency’s letterhead to extend his effort, which sometimes includes spreading rumors. Two weeks ago, Mr. Pulte issued a news release in which he said he “was encouraged” by unsubstantiated reports that Mr. Powell was thinking of resigning.

“Where is Jerome Powell? Where did Jerome Powell put the $2.5 billion,” Mr. Pulte said in a Fox News television appearance from outside the Fed building this week.

Representatives with the housing agency declined repeated requests for comment.

Democratic lawmakers, including some of Mr. Powell’s harshest critics, have blasted Mr. Pulte’s commentary, saying he should be focused on America’s housing crisis.

“Your job is to manage F.H.F.A., oversee our nation’s mortgage market, and lower costs for American families — full stop,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, wrote in a letter to Mr. Pulte this week. “Your prolific activity on X and apparent decision to take time away from your duties as F.H.F.A. director to draft a letter for President Trump to fire Chair Powell are abnormal.”

Ms. Warren, who is no fan of Mr. Powell, added, “Your behavior raises significant questions about your judgment and commitment to operating F.H.F.A. in a responsible, competent, and lawful manner.”

Earlier this year, Ms. Warren questioned why Mr. Pulte deleted 25,000 posts from his X account after the 2024 presidential election. Rolling Stone reported in February that some of Mr. Pulte’s deleted posts were related to “meme stocks” and his promotion of Bed Bath and Beyond shares.

Mr. Pulte, 37, came to run the housing agency with little housing policy experience. A grandson of William Pulte, who was the founder of PulteGroup, one of the largest American home builders, the younger Mr. Pulte did not play an active role at the company though he did serve as a board member from 2016 to 2020.

Mr. Pulte has long had an entrepreneurial spirit. In college, at Northwestern University, he founded an aerial photography company but also showed signs of having political ambition.

“The way we think of Trump as a showman, this guy had elements of it, too,” Ryan Erickson, who was the former president of the Northwestern College Democrats and endorsed Mr. Pulte’s candidacy to lead the student government in 2009.

Before being tapped by Mr. Trump to run housing agency, Mr. Pulte was best known for running his own investment firm and helping to clean up blighted homes in Detroit — not far from where PulteGroup got its start.

In later years, Mr. Pulte gained a big following on social media for his “Twitter Philanthropy,” to raise money for a variety of causes including victims of school shootings. He also has a reputation for pumping up meme stocks on social media and giving out dubious financial advice.

Despite his penchant for aggressive social media tactics, Mr. Pulte has also been the recipient of harassment online. In 2022, he sued an executive at the home building company that his family founded for trolling him on Twitter during company time.

Mr. Pulte’s financial disclosures showed that he still has strong ties to the real estate market and remains a managing member of the Pulte Family Office, an investment fund. Mr. Pulte, who according to the filing is worth more than $200 million, has for years called for lower interest rates to boost the real estate sector and is now doing so from a prominent government perch.

“To the extent to which Pulte has input into the direction of the Federal Reserve — and his statements suggest he thinks he has some — it is problematic that his input is in line with his personal financial interests,” said Jeff Hauser, the executive director of the Revolving Door Project, which scrutinizes the influence of money in politics.

Several housing policymakers and former housing regulators, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the feared angering Mr. Pulte, said they found his use of social media unsettling and somewhat embarrassing. Others have begun to refer to Mr. Pulte as a “mini-Trump,” given the president’s proclivity to use social media to lash out at his political critics and opponents.

But if there was any thought that Mr. Trump had lost confidence in Mr. Pulte, that was dashed this past weekend. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Pulte, saying is doing an “outstanding job.” Mr. Trump also wrote in all caps: “WILLIAM, DON’T LET THE RADICAL LEFT WEAKLINGS STOP YOU!”

Mr. Pulte, who was a contributor to Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign last year, reposted the president’s message several times and thanked him for his support. He later issued a news release on the housing agency’s website about Mr. Trump’s post.

For now, Mr. Trump has ruled out firing Mr. Powell but he has not let up in his campaign against the Fed chair. And neither has Mr. Pulte. On Tuesday, Mr. Pulte appeared to be ratcheting up the pressure with a post on “X” that asked what workers at the nation’s central bank really do.

The one-two punch from Mr. Trump and Mr. Pulte appears to be aimed at undermining confidence in Mr. Powell’s ability to keep leading the Fed until his term runs out next year.

Mr. Pulte, after being confirmed by the Senate, came into his new job with flurry and a flair for showmanship.

As the agency’s director, Mr. Pulte’s main job is overseeing the government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are the twin engines that drive the nation’s housing market. Fannie and Freddie have been under government control since the federal government had to bail them out during the 2008 financial crisis to prevent an even greater collapse of the housing market.

Even though the companies are controlled by the government, they operate quasi-independently. But one of the first things Mr. Pulte did was to name himself as chairman of the boards of both companies and oust a number of sitting board members.

Mr. Pulte also threatened to fire thousands of employees at both companies. But he pulled back on that move and instead Fannie and Freddie have been quietly laying off dozens of employees every few weeks.

One criticism of Mr. Pulte is that beyond his social media posts railing about Mr. Powell he hasn’t done much to outline a strategic policy on getting the housing market going and confronting what some economists and analysts estimate is a nationwide shortage of at least two million homes.

“I am not quite sure what the overarching policy is,” said Laurie Goodman, founder of the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute. “What is his philosophy.”

This week, Mr. Pulte hit back at Ms. Warren for her letter questioning his job performance with his typical bluster that recalled the controversy surrounding her Native American roots.

“Her letter was as phony as her heritage,” Mr. Pulte wrote.