How Bill Pulte learned the art of the attack, from his own family to Letitia James

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Before Bill Pulte started targeting President Donald Trump’s political enemies, he practiced on his own family.

He accused his grandfather’s widow of insider trading. He was allegedly the driving force behind a website trashing an aunt as a “fake Christian.” And he publicly blasted another relative as “a fat slob,” “weirdo” and “grifter,” according to court records from a bitter legal feud pursued by Pulte that ensnared PulteGroup, the multibillion-dollar homebuilding giant his grandfather founded.

In any other administration, that background could foreclose the possibility of landing a top government post. But in Trump’s Washington, the attention-seeking and hyper-online millennial has unexpectedly become a major player. The latest measure of his influence came this week when New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who angered Trump with her courtroom pursuits of him, was indicted on bank fraud charges following a protracted campaign by Pulte.

Pulte's official job is director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, where he’s entrusted with the dull but critical task of ensuring the soundness of the mortgage market. He has instead transformed the position into a megaphone to denigrate Trump’s perceived political foes. In addition to referring James to the Justice Department for investigation — which Pulte widely publicized — he has probed Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, and Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve governor appointed by President Joe Biden. Both are now under federal criminal investigation.

James, Schiff and Cook all deny any wrongdoing and say the investigations against them were politically motivated.

After The Associated Press sought comment for this story from Pulte last week, he excoriated the news organization.

“‘The AP’, because we expose alleged Mortgage Fraudsters, is writing a hit piece, filled with falsehoods,” Pulte, 37, wrote on X to his 3 million followers before deleting the post.

A White House spokesman said in a statement that “anyone who engages in criminal activity should be held accountable. No one is above the law. President Trump’s only retribution is success and historic achievements for the American people.”

Members of Pulte’s family and company officials for PulteGroup did not respond to requests for comment.

Pulte’s rise to power and affluence was set in motion in the 1950s when his namesake grandfather William J. Pulte founded Pulte Homes, now known as PulteGroup, near Detroit. By the time Bill Pulte was born in 1988, the publicly traded company was one of the largest homebuilders in the U.S., and his grandfather was on his way to becoming a billionaire.

Pulte grew up in Florida and attended a private high school before enrolling at Northwestern University. When he lost the race for student body president in 2009, he quipped to The Daily Northwestern newspaper: “I guess I can go back to running my helicopter business.” A year after graduating in 2010, he founded his own eponymous investment firm.

But for much of Pulte's adult life, his identity has been closely intertwined with his family's legacy company. It’s been a rocky relationship.

In 2016, Pulte and his grandfather led a corporate shakeup that resulted in Pulte being appointed to the company’s board while still in his 20s.

Pulte has not been shy about his plans for power. He has portrayed himself as the head of his family and claimed to be the only true heir to the legacy of his grandfather, who died in 2018, according to court records. He took credit for the company shakeup they led together, predicting that it would "be studied for decades, and maybe, centuries.”

His boasts and online conduct were an area of concern for company officials, according to court records.

In 2019, Pulte began building a massive following on Twitter by giving away money to strangers, actions that drew him a retweet from Trump and fawning press coverage.

However, he soon had a bitter falling out with a veteran’s charity and amassed detractors who called him a charlatan. Company officials requested that Pulte give up his Twitter handle — @Pulte — and correct misperceptions that he ran the company, according to an internal corporate memo produced in litigation. The memo stated that “negativity toward the company has continued in synch with Bill’s activities.”

His dispute with the veteran’s charity was one of several incidents related to Pulte’s Twitter philanthropy that drew him unwanted attention.

In 2019, Pulte offered to help a Marine veteran seeking help to purchase an expensive service dog for his special needs son. When Pulte didn’t follow through, the veteran was upset and made public his correspondence with Pulte.

Pulte accused the veteran on Twitter of exposing his personal information and suggested that he was part of a group of “scammers” targeting him. An attorney representing Pulte threatened legal action, demanding that the veteran delete his post and cease publishing “defamatory statements,” according to a 2019 text message reviewed by AP. The attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

That same year, Pulte gave $3,000 to a Twitter user whose account soon began making sexually explicit posts, including at least one that spoke approvingly of incest.

Pulte also fell for a scam that was orchestrated by a former business associate of Kanye West, the rapper now known as Ye, the Chicago Tribune later reported. Pulte ended up wiring the former associate $250,000 that was premised, in part, on the associate falsely promising that Ye would provide financial and public support for Pulte’s online philanthropy, court records show.

“Giving away $250k of Kanye West’s money here on Twitter Philanthropy,” Pulte tweeted in July 2019.

Pulte got his money back and the former West associate was indicted on a federal wire fraud charge, though the case was later dropped.

Pulte’s representatives declined to provide details about the extent of his charitable giving. In 2019, Pulte tweeted that he would “give away $1 million dollars on Twitter” after reaching 1 million followers.

An archived copy of a spreadsheet that Pulte once made publicly available states that his Twitter philanthropy donated more than $1 million, including $474,000 given away the year he made his million-dollar pledge.

But he regularly solicited contributions from others and it’s not clear from the data how much was given directly by Pulte. Team Pulte, a nonprofit he founded for his online charity, also collected contributions from others and gave away about $400,000, according to tax filings made between 2020 and 2023, the most recent year that they are available for the organization.

Responding to questions from the AP, Pulte’s agency described the coming story as a “hit piece” and asserted that “Mr. Pulte did give away $1 million on Twitter.”

By 2020, company officials had lost patience with Pulte. When the Pulte family’s equity stake dropped to a point where they were no longer guaranteed a board spot, company officials moved fast and booted the scion.

Pulte did not take it well. He sold his stock, accused his grandfather’s widow of insider trading and blamed the CEO for damaging the company, records show.

The parties appeared to reach a détente nearly a year later when Pulte received a plaque and a letter of thanks, court records state. It was short lived.

A handful of anonymous Twitter accounts started to troll Pulte. The posts, many made as replies to Pulte’s tweets, were not widely read and often deleted, according to court records.

“This Bill Pulte has nothing to do with Pulte Homes,” one of the accounts tweeted in 2021. “He trades in his grandfather’s legacy as if he had something to do with it.”

Another post: “Pulte Family is kind of a mess. Money does that.”

One of the handles on Twitter was “Ghost of Bill Pulte,” a reference to Pulte’s deceased grandfather.

That flip reference outraged Pulte.

He hired an investigative firm — and filed a defamation suit against Brandon Jones, a PulteGroup executive whom Pulte had previously blocked from receiving a promotion.

Jones, who was fired and admitted to operating the accounts, did not respond to requests for comment.

Pulte saw a wider-ranging conspiracy involving top PulteGroup executives, who he accused of participating in a “nefarious smear campaign” aimed at “stalking, harassing, and defaming” him.

Though his lawsuit was against Jones, his attorneys broadened their campaign, bombarding the company and its officials with subpoenas and deposition requests. Pulte solicited “whistleblower” tips and helped finance lawsuits brought by others.

His Twitter feed became a running commentary of case updates and grievances, including accusations that the former PulteGroup executive who trolled him was “a bag man” for the company’s CEO and would “not get away with attacking me and my grandpa! Believe me, we will get to the bottom of (this) harassment scheme and run down any of the conspirators!”

A judge rebuked Pulte and ordered him to stop posting comments that could intimidate witnesses. Even so, Pulte repeated the behavior during appearances on Fox Business Network, which led a company official to warn the network against allowing him to air “false grievances.”

His aggressive — and very public — campaign against the company concerned some family members.

The Pulte Family Charitable Foundation issued a statement in 2023 warning that Pulte’s comments “may suggest that he speaks on behalf of the entire Pulte family.”

In fact, the charity said, Pulte “does not represent, nor is he a spokesman for all members of the Pulte family, in any capacity.”

Pulte fired back, blasting his aunt — the charity’s president — as a “phony Catholic.” He alleged the aunt, Nancy Pulte Rickard, was working on behalf of PulteGroup’s CEO and was “petty, basically broke.” He also sought to depose her in the lawsuit.

Articles attacking her appeared on conservative news sites. A website popped up that called her a “Fake Christian” who was “misusing charity funds to smear her own family members” and suggested she was guilty of financial crimes.

Pulte Rickard did not reply to requests for comment. In court filings, her attorney’s described the attacks as part of a campaign of “degrading and threatening harassment” by her nephew.

Pulte’s step aunt — whom he called a “fat slob,” “weirdo” and “grifter” — alleged that Pulte himself was behind the site, according to a legal filing she submitted after Pulte tried to depose her.

Pulte’s representatives would not address whether he was behind the website.

“Mr. Pulte enjoys a great relationship with the majority of his wide family,” the FHFA said.

Then the attacks abruptly ended. After Trump won the 2024 election, Pulte deleted thousands of social media posts and withdrew his defamation lawsuit several months later.

The moves coincided with a new cause: a job in the Trump administration.

Pulte, who along with his wife has donated about $1 million to Trump’s political efforts, was confirmed by the Senate to his FHFA post in March.

Since taking the job, he’s helped spearhead Trump’s retribution campaign, focusing on potential instances of mortgage fraud by Trump's rivals, which he often posts about rapid-fire on X. Meanwhile, he's refused to comment on similar conduct by several members of Trump's cabinet, as well as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Trump ally.

After James' indictment Thursday, he took to X for a victory lap, reposting commentary from conservative commentators who lauded him and the case he helped build.

“If you know of anyone who has committed mortgage fraud, please send any and all tips to [email protected],” Pulte posted.

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Contact AP’s global investigative team at [email protected] or https://www.ap.org/tips/