MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO

‘Little Trump’ Aide’s Mini MAGA Antics Causing Chaos at the White House

Housing chief Bill Pulte’s stunts might play well with the president, but they’re prompting groans from other members of the MAGA leader’s team.

Bill Pulte, a rising star within the Trump administration, has reportedly made such a song and dance of pandering to the president that it’s starting to drive other aides insane.

Pulte, 37, has carried out stunts like using Ghostbusters-themed posters as props in exchanges with Donald Trump. The director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency also made a habit of publicly bashing loathed Trump opponents like Fed chair Jerome Powell, and has taken to emulating the president’s tendency to go off on bizarre tangents during meetings with others, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

Pulte made headlines earlier this month when it emerged he’d managed to talk the president, 79, into proposing replacing 30-year-mortgages with 50-year-mortgages, despite experts warning the changes would almost certainly trap recipients in lifelong debt.

Two days later, news broke that a team of ethics and investigations watchdogs had been fired at Fannie Mae, a government enterprise that helps keep the U.S. housing market stable. The investigators had reportedly been probing whether Pulte had improperly obtained sensitive mortgage data on key MAGA enemies, including New York Attorney General Letitia James.

WHAT TOOK SO LONG?

Trump Enforcer Picks New Target in Revenge Tour

Sarah Ewall-Wice

Pulte appeared to have done his homework prior to joining the administration. The Journal reports he and his wife donated several hundreds of thousands of dollars to the MAGA cause both ahead of last year’s presidential election and in previous election cycles. He was seen dining with Roger Stone late last year, Trump’s one-time adviser and long-time friend. Pulte’s also been making an effort to get in Donald Trump Jr’s good graces.

While all this would appear to have succeeded in wooing the president, the young aide’s methods and tactics have proven a source of increasing annoyance and frustration among his colleagues, the paper reported.

🙊 🙉 🙈

Fired Watchdogs Probed How Trump Goon Got Enemies’ Records

Will Neal

Amid reports that some of Pulte’s opponents are now gathering something of a dossier on the Housing chief’s perceived missteps in office, officials have told staffers to keep an eye out for Pulte and ensure he doesn’t approach Trump unattended. The aide took to showing up at the president’s golf courses unannounced.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and Federal Housing Finance Agency for comment on this story.

Play Video

On one occasion, Pulte reportedly got himself into a tangle with the Treasury Secretary during a dinner hosted by Donald Trump Jr. According to a Politico report about the incident, Scott Bessent heard Pulte was badmouthing him to the president behind his back, and became so angry he threatened to punch Pulte “in the f–king face.”

White House insiders at the time told the New York Post that they would not put their money in the fight on Pulte, who is around 5′ 8”. “The general consensus in the White House is that Scott would have beat that little midget’s a-- and everyone would have paid big money to watch it happen,” a source told the outlet.

SILVER ALERT

Aide, 37, Fooled Trump, 79, Into Harebrained Mortgage Scheme

Sarah Ewall-Wice

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Will NealReporter

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.