But the prospect of a financial windfall has revived Trump’s interest, while conservatives believe that government control, prompted by the 2008 financial crisis, should never have lasted 17 years.

Today, Fannie and Freddie, which bundle and sell mortgages, are worth $300 billion or more, according to some estimates, leading to a fresh reassessment in Trump’s second term.

“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are doing very well, throwing off a lot of CASH, and the time would seem to be right,” Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social. “Stay tuned!”

For weeks, the Trump administration has been teasing it would explore another attempt at privatization. But Trump’s involvement signals a new level of seriousness about the proposal. In his post, the president said he had not yet decided but would be speaking with the three responsible agency heads at Treasury, Commerce, and Housing and Urban Development.

What a deal would look like and how it would be executed remains to be seen. But the wisdom of such a move is being freshly debated.

Supporters of the idea say it would make the government money and leave mortgages in the hands of the private sector where they belong.

“The government’s shares could be worth hundreds of billions,” Martin Capital CEO Rod D. Martin wrote on X. “And why is the government in the mortgage business? That’s not good for anybody except the socialist elites.”

Opponents say privatizing the firms could push up mortgage rates, which are already hovering around 6.5%, by adding a degree of risk for the investors who buy up loans.

During his first term, Trump signed a memorandum requiring Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to present plans for an overhaul “as soon as practicable.” He argued that doing so would reduce taxpayer risk, modernize government housing programs, and possibly make it easier to own a home.

Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said even before he was confirmed in 2017 that he aimed to remove Fannie and Freddie from government custody.

That plan was never finalized due to logistical and legal complications, and not everyone today is convinced that an overhaul would be positive or practicable.

“They were nationalized for a reason,” said Gerald Friedman, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. “They were too big to fail, and they are still too big to fail.”

“They’re vital to the U.S. housing market,” he added. “If they behave recklessly, as they did before the great financial crisis, then they’ll still be rescued.”

Neither the White House nor the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Treasury Department, or Commerce Department responded to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.

But the plan has its public defenders. Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman noted the possible $300 billion government windfall of the sale, adding that the firms have a “fortress-level of capital” stocked up.

The mortgage giants back trillions of dollars in home loans. They do not issue loans themselves but instead buy mortgages from banks and then package them into securities that are sold to big investors such as pension funds, insurers, and hedge funds.

A collapsing bond market is what led to the 2008 government takeover, yet even before then, Fannie and Freddie had never been fully private.

Congress created Fannie Mae in 1938 amid the Great Depression and then Freddie Mac in 1970. The pair was publicly traded while also being backed by the U.S. Treasury prior to the government takeover in 2008.

At the head of the FHFA, which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is 36-year-old Bill Pulte, who has set his sights on changing the agencies.

The grandson of housing mega-developer William J. Pulte, Bill Pulte has made a show of bringing the 16,000 Fannie and Freddie employees back to the office and streamlining operations. He dubbed the pair “obese” and said he wants to put them “on the treadmill.”

Pulte shared a screenshot of Trump’s Wednesday post on X and released a podcast with Donald Trump Jr. later the same day. Yet the conversation was short on details about how to privatize Fannie and Freddie.

“It wasn’t supposed to be in conservatorship forever. It shouldn’t be in conservatorship forever,” Pulte said. “However, what we’re focused on now is trying to get it back more towards its original roots — providing liquidity, stability, and affordability.”

Pulte charged that the Biden administration oriented federal housing agencies toward diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, leaving him to overhaul operations.

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Pulte announced that he’ll meet on June 17 with HUD Secretary Scott Turner, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Paul Atkins, the Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, for the first meeting of the Federal Housing Finance Oversight Board.

“I look forward to a productive conversation,” he wrote.