Bill Pulte gets a new job, a social media-savvy realtor helps a Texas mayor, and a new video on the data center sector racks up hits on YouTube. From the wild and wooly world of real estate, here are our Hits and Misses for the week of June 1-5.
Miss: An Intelligence Surprise. It what must be considered the most extreme possible case of thinking outside of the box, President Trump has named Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), to replace Tulsi Gabbard as acting director of national intelligence. Trump declared that his unlikely pick “has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets, and over 10 Trillion Dollars at Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, a substantial increase from where it was just 12 months ago.” However, he never worked a day of his life in the intelligence sector. It was no surprise that the reaction from Democrats was hostile, but Republicans in Congress and conservative influencers were wildly split over the news. Even more amazing is that Trump told the Wall Street Journal that he expects Pulte do enact mass firings throughout the federal intelligence structure. “Frankly, it might be good for him to shake it up before people come,” Trump said. “Because, if he [Pulte] reduced the size, in conjunction with me…and in conjunction with possibly the person coming in…he can do a lot of the hard work and we wouldn’t have to saddle somebody that goes in.”
Hit: And in the End. I don’t know if Scott Bessent is the greatest Treasury Secretary of all time, but perhaps he is the funniest. The Hill reports that Bessent enlivened a Senate hearing this week when Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) asked him to confirm media reports that he threatened to punch Pulte in the face after discovering the FHFA chief was badmouthing him to Trump. The dapper Bessent responded with a smile: “No sir, I actually said I was going to kick his a–.” Tillis isn’t half-bad as a funnyman, either – he responded to Bessent by declaring, “Good, OK. Good, I share the emotion. Thank you.” But Bessent showed an extra dash of class when he added that “many teams have fights in the locker room and then go out and win for the team on the table.”
Hit and Miss: This is a Low Profile? Jerome Powell made his first post-Federal Reserve chairman appearance this week by accepting the 2026 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. On one hand, he gets a Hit because you have to admire Powell’s courage for absorbing endless abuse from the president and his minions, including an outrageous attempt to have the Department of Justice tried to pin a perjury rap on him because of his Senate hearing testimony regarding renovations at the Fed’s headquarters. But Powell also gets a Miss for back-pedaling on his pledge to keep a low profile while he transitions from the chairman role to being a member of the board of governors. Furthermore, his speech was full of bizarre statements on how the Fed supposedly saved the economy on multiple occasions while staying above the partisan fray. Perhaps the award ceremony audience members also deserved Profile in Courage honors for being brave enough to listen to that revisionism without fainting from laughter.
Miss: Fumble in the End Zone. Illinois lawmakers had the job of crafting legislation that would have created an equitable solution for keeping the Chicago Bears in the state without aggravating taxpayers by siphoning public funding for a new stadium. But when the legislature adjourned on Monday at four in the morning, no legislation was passed. No politician likes to be remembered as the one who caused a major sports team to move away, but at the moment the state’s elected officials (not to mention Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson) may be the ones who will be remembered for enabling the Bears to cross the state line into Indiana, which the team announced this afternoon.
Hit: Generating Hits and Likes. Kudos to MarkAnthony Ball, a realtor who was tapped to become the social media marketing advisor to San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones. Ball, a former senior real estate advisor and social media and digital marketing lead with eXp Realty, is advising the mayor on how to promote her priorities and policies to a screen-obsessed audience. “Stepping into this role feels less like a pivot and more like a convergence of everything I’ve been building toward,” said Ball in announcing his new role, which might come at the best possible time for Jones. According to coverage in the San Antonio Express News, “At City Council meetings, Jones frequently spars with council members and is on the losing side of major votes.” Maybe Ball can help change minds and votes for Jones via TikTok, X, and the other online platforms? Hey, if a realtor can’t make a sale to the public, who can?
Miss: Slanted Data Center Coverage. Also this week, a video titled “What Every American Should Know about Data Centers” debuted on YouTube. It was produced and hosted by someone calling himself Tommy G – he’s an ex-rapper who grabbed a camera a few years ago and started making videos, mostly related to street gangs and prisons. Now he’s turned his attention to the growth of the data center sector, offering a blatantly slanted vision that shows this industry as being the new evil that will damage the nation. Quite frankly, it is a crummy video that borrows (most likely without proper rights clearance) footage from TV news reports and puts an exclusive focus on data center opponents. You immediately know his grasp of the subject is shaky when he holds up Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the voice of reason and intelligence on the topic. The filmmaker, who has made previous videos showing a virulent hatred of Israel, also emphasizes the presence of one Israeli cybersecurity firm in this sector as evidence of a “Zionist” takeover. Amazingly, this new video generated more than 685,000 views within 24 hours of its going live, and Tommy G’s YouTube channel has over 3.5 million subscribers. While the shoddy contents feel like a fringe effort by an amateur filmmaker, this could someday be the new mainstream media – let’s hope not.
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
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