President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday selected Bill Pulte to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, tapping the private equity CEO and philanthropist to become the country’s top housing regulator.

If confirmed, Pulte would oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage giants standing behind roughly half of the U.S. residential mortgage market.

The Trump administration is expected to pursue a plan to release Fannie and Freddie from government control — a complex maneuver that could have major repercussions for the mortgage market.

The selection of Pulte — who frequently tweets praise of Trump — signals the administration wants a loyalist in the position. It would be up to Pulte and the Treasury secretary to figure out a deal to release Fannie and Freddie if they choose to go down that path. Scott Bessent has been nominated to be the next Treasury secretary.

Pulte founded Pulte Capital Partners LLC, which focuses on housing products, in 2011 and garnered attention in recent years for promoting his giveaways of money and other goods on social media. He is a grandson of real estate magnate William Pulte.

“I like him,” said David Dworkin, president and CEO of the National Housing Conference, an affordable housing coalition.

“He’s an interesting mix of understanding mortgage markets, home building and community development, and he brings an outsider’s view to Washington policymaking,” said Dworkin, who worked with Pulte on blight removal in Detroit. “There were a lot of more conventional candidates out there, but this isn’t a conventional presidency.”

GOP lawmakers have raised the idea of including language to mandate Fannie and Freddie’s release in this year’s reconciliation package as a way to offset the cost of extending expiring tax cuts.

But the process is a complicated and controversial one — bipartisan efforts to release the companies have repeatedly failed over the 16 years they’ve been in government conservatorship — and a number of outstanding questions would have to be answered for it to move forward. It was not immediately clear what Pulte’s selection would mean for the effort, given his light public record. Fannie shares fell Thursday.

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