Trump said on Truth Social he'll speak with officials including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Federal Housing Finance Agency director William Pulte, about the matter "and will be making a decision in the near future." He added, "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are doing very well, throwing off a lot of CASH, and the time would seem to be right. Stay tuned!" Why it matters: The two companies combined support some 70% of U.S. mortgages. Between the lines: Changing the structure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac poses risk to the economy — and at the least could raise mortgage rates even further, per Axios' Felix Salmon and Emily Peck.

President Trump said Wednesday he was considering making two giant government-sponsored home lenders public. “I am giving very serious consideration to bringing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public,” Trump wrote in a Wednesday post on Truth Social, adding that he would make a decision in the “near future.” The president unsuccessfully attempted to release the two entities from government control during his first term in 2019. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were originally created by Congress but remained private companies funded by the U.S. Treasury until the housing market crash in 2008.

Bankers have estimated that the government’s stakes in Fannie and Freddie could be valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. Trump allies and other Republicans see privatization of the mortgage giants as a way to reduce the country’s deficit and return money to taxpayers. The two firms have been under government control since the 2008 financial crisis, and attempts to release them since then—including during Trump’s first term—have been unsuccessful. Fannie and Freddie bundle and sell mortgages, with a government-backed guarantee to protect investors from losses when homeowners default. That allows banks and others to originate more 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages.