Over the weekend, President Donald Trump teased a new company known as the “Great American Mortgage Corporation” on his Truth Social platform.
FHFA Director Bill Pulte did the same on X, posting what appeared to be a logo for this new brand with no other information.
Trump’s post had a lot of cryptic elements, including a picture of him standing at the New York Stock Exchange, the ticker symbol MAGA, and a date of November 2025.
It all points to some sort of impending initial public offering (IPO), ostensibly combining Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the process.
So what does it all mean? And is it realistic, or just some form of grandstanding?
Is the Great American Mortgage Corporation the New Name of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
As noted, the GAMC appears to be the new collective name for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs).
So not only is Trump teasing the idea of an IPO, with a date as soon as November (as I annotated above), he’s also suggesting the two companies will merge into one.
It sounds like a very large undertaking in such a short amount of time, though we have seen this administration push things through that seemed highly unlikely.
They appear serious about creating a new-look Fed that is dovish and willing to lower interest rates.
And they didn’t hesitate to slap tariffs on countries throughout the world, so calling their bluff on a Fannie/Freddie IPO might also be risky.
Granted, this is a very complex situation and the GSEs hold trillions in assets and back the lion’s share of mortgages in this country.
Any disruption, especially right now with the housing market seemingly quite fragile, could send shockwaves through the entire economy.
In other words, now might not be the best time to do this, even if we might all agree that these companies shouldn’t remain in conservatorship forever.
The pair have been in a government conservatorship since 2008 when an unprecedented mortgage crisis led to the Great Financial Crisis (GFC).
Since then, they’ve received financial support from the U.S. Treasury to stay afloat and ensure their implicit guarantee stays intact.
Without it, some worry there wouldn’t be a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in this country, or nearly the same amount of liquidity in the housing market.
Fannie and Freddie purchase mortgages from individual banks and lenders, securitize the loans into mortgage-backed securities (MBS), and provide an implicit guarantee to attract investors throughout the world.
Bill Ackman Says Mortgage Rates Will Go Down if Fannie and Freddie Merge
One of the key issues related to their release has been this implicit guarantee and how it might affect mortgage interest rates.
Simply put, anything less than the current implied guarantee would mean more risk for agency-backed MBS.
As such, these investors would demand a higher rate of return, aka a better yield that would equate to a higher mortgage rate for homeowners, all else equal.
This has long been seen a non-starter in the GSE release conversation, especially since mortgage rates surged from sub-3% to 8% in the span of a couple years, before settling down somewhat lately.
But now activist investor Bill Ackman, who has a lot to gain from their release, has argued that a merger between the two companies would “achieve huge synergies” and result in major cost savings.
And of course, in his mind, these savings would be passed on to consumers in the form of lower mortgage rates.
He added that a single company would reduce risk to the government and by extension taxpayers, noting that President Trump has a good idea on his hands.
It’s all rather weird, especially since less than a month ago FHFA director Pulte said Fannie and Freddie were likely to remain in conservatorship.
The whole thing just feels haphazard and riddled with interested parties, which has long been my contention against their release.
While I am for them getting out conservatorship at some point, it shouldn’t have anything to do with shareholder speculation and making a buck.
It should have to do with the health of the housing market and mortgage finance, ideally ushering in more private capital so we can rely less on the government for these things moving forward.
At the same time, given the size of the undertaking it needs to be done in a very well planned out and thoughtful manner.
Silly tweets and made up ticker symbols doesn’t imply that they’re taking it very seriously at all.
Before creating this site, I worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on experience in the early 2000s inspired me to begin writing about mortgages 19 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the home loan process. Follow me on X for hot takes.
