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Trump Tweets Offer Glimpse of Plans for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

June 3, 2025

President Donald Trump intensified speculation about the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last week when he posted the following comment about the government-sponsored enterprises, which have been in conservatorship for nearly 17 years:  

I am working on TAKING THESE AMAZING COMPANIES PUBLIC, but I want to be clear, the US Government will keep its implicit GUARANTEES, and I will stay strong in my position on overseeing them as President.

The Enterprises’ future has remained uncertain for over a decade, with prospects for their release from conservatorship fluctuating with changing policy priorities.

  • Many market participants expect the Trump administration to focus on the Enterprises after the reconciliation bill and tariff policy are finalized.
  • While Enterprise reform could occur via legislation, any meaningful change is highly unlikely without significant involvement from the administration.  
Policymakers will need to solve complicated questions when determining the Enterprises’ path forward, including:
  • The potential restructuring of the government’s investment in the Enterprises;
  • Appropriate capital levels needed for the Enterprises to withstand future financial crises;
  • The role that the Enterprises should play in supporting affordable housing programs, and, perhaps most importantly, the 
  • Impact on mortgage costs and availability.
The Trump administration has said on several occasions that it will not support moves that raise mortgage costs. Trump’s comment about “implicit guarantees” seems to acknowledge this concern. 

However, financial analysts remain unclear as to how this would work in practice. Bloomberg’s opinion columnist Matt Levine offered a helpful roadmap of possible future levels of “government support”:

  • No government guarantee;
  • Explicit government guarantee - they will take a first-loss risk with their capital, but, in the worst case, the government will back the mortgages that they guarantee; or
  • An implicit guarantee, “wink wink.”
Levine explains:
The third option seems bad and untidy, but also perhaps the most practical outcome. No government backstop of the multitrillion-dollar mortgage market seems, at this point, a little optimistic … The explicit government guarantee is optically difficult due to the accounting and moral-hazard problems. But “there’s no government guarantee, Fannie and Freddie will be very well capitalized and carefully regulated to make sure that they don’t fail, but wink wink” might get most of the benefits of a pure private-capital solution, but with the financial stability and low mortgage rates of a government backstop.
He does stress, however, the potentially messy implications of a “wink wink” policy, including waffling within a future administration on whether to bail out the Enterprises during a major financial crisis, potential investor lawsuits, or accusations of securities fraud.

CREFC will closely monitor major developments related to Enterprise reform, particularly as they relate to the multifamily market.

Please contact Sairah Burki (sburki@crefc.org) or David McCarthy (dmccarthy@crefc.org) with any questions.

Contact 

Sairah Burki
Managing Director,
Head of Regulatory Affairs and Sustainability
703.201.4294
sburki@crefc.org

David McCarthy
Managing Director,
Chief Lobbyist, Head of Legislative Affairs
202.448.0855
dmccarthy@crefc.org
The information provided herein is general in nature and for educational purposes only. CRE Finance Council makes no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, validity, usefulness, or suitability of the information provided. The information should not be relied upon or interpreted as legal, financial, tax, accounting, investment, commercial or other advice, and CRE Finance Council disclaims all liability for any such reliance. © 2025 CRE Finance Council. All rights reserved.

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