President Donald Trump speaks at a bill signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House on December 12, 2025 in Washington.
Francis Chan | Politician | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is “directing my members of Congress” to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds, which he claimed would lower interest rates and monthly payments.
In a post on Truth Social, President Trump said he issued the order because government-backed mortgage issuers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are well-funded.
It is unclear who Trump is referring to as his representative. The White House and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for clarification.
“We are working on it. Thanks to President Trump, Fannie and Freddie will be executed,” FHFA Secretary Bill Pulte wrote in a post on X late Thursday.
Hours before Trump’s post, Pruitt told CNBC in an interview that he expected Trump to make a decision on a potential initial public offering for Fannie and Freddie within the next month or two.
President Trump claimed his latest directive will help restore “affordability.” The word is key to the Democratic political message, accusing the Republican president of failing to address rising prices.
President Trump ramped up his criticism of his predecessor Joe Biden’s administration, claiming that Biden “ignored the housing market” among many other policy failures.
“Everything was broken, but I as President of the United States have already fixed it!” Trump declared. “Right now, I’m paying particular attention to the housing market.”
“This was a really great decision because I chose not to sell Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in my first term, and against the advice of ‘experts’, they are now worth many times that amount, an absolute fortune, and I hold $200 billion in cash,” he wrote.
“That’s why I’m directing members of Congress to purchase $200 billion in mortgage bonds.”
It was not clear from Mr. Trump’s post whether the purchases would be made by Fannie and Freddie, the Treasury Department, or another entity.
In the past, the Fed has bought mortgage bonds to lower interest rates as part of a monetary policy known as “quantitative easing.” But the executive branch cannot order an independent central bank to initiate those transactions.
The Treasury has purchased mortgage bonds in the past during times of extreme turmoil, such as the housing crisis of 2008 and 2009.
It is also unclear whether this purchase will affect mortgage interest rates. The Fed’s quantitative easing typically involves buying multiple types of securities and larger amounts of Treasury bonds to lower long-term Treasury yields.
Mortgage rates typically track long-term government bond rates rather than mortgage bond yields.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note fell slightly in after-hours trading following President Trump’s comments.
