'He's a nut': Hill Republicans sour on Trump housing official Bill Pulte [View all]

Source: Politico

09/09/2025 03:41 PM EDT


Republicans on Capitol Hill are privately expressing growing discontent with a top Trump administration housing official who has thrust himself to the center of the president’s campaign against the Federal Reserve.

Bill Pulte has parlayed a niche regulatory job — director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency — into celebrity status within President Donald Trump’s orbit by becoming one of his most vociferous social media attack dogs. But his antics are aggravating some more establishment figures around Trump — most notably Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who threatened to punch Pulte in the face at a private dinner last week in Washington.

Now, some Republican lawmakers are privately celebrating Bessent’s move to stand up to him.

“I think he’s a nut,” one House Republican said of Pulte. (Like others in this story, the lawmaker was granted anonymity to speak candidly about sensitive dynamics within the Trump administration.) “The guy’s just a little too big for his britches,” said a second GOP lawmaker, who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees housing policy and the FHFA. “I’ve got great respect for Bessent for taking him on.”

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/09/republicans-congress-bessent-pulte-trump-00552586