On March 27, 2019, President Trump issued a memorandum directing the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Housing Finance Agency to develop a comprehensive reform plan for the nation's housing finance system. The directive specifically targeted the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises that together guarantee or own roughly half of all U.S. mortgages. The memorandum invoked executive authority to task these agencies with proposing both legislative language and administrative actions that would reduce federal control and wind down these long-standing conservatorships that had been in place since the 2008 financial crisis.

The memorandum's effects would have extended broadly across the housing market. Homebuyers seeking mortgages, particularly those with lower credit scores or smaller down payments who rely on the secondary mortgage market, stood to be directly affected by any restructuring of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's operations. Lenders and financial institutions would face fundamental changes in how they originate and sell mortgages. Renters and homeowners already struggling with affordability faced the possibility of reduced liquidity in mortgage markets and potentially higher borrowing costs if the implicit government backstop diminished without adequate replacement mechanisms.

This action represented an early component of the Trump administration's broader housing finance deregulation agenda. It preceded Executive Order 13878 establishing the White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing by three months, signaling a coordinated push to reshape federal housing policy around reducing government involvement and regulatory requirements. These efforts occurred alongside subsequent actions like the 2026 disparate impact enforcement changes and mortgage credit expansion initiatives, which collectively shifted federal housing policy toward deregulation and away from affirmative protections for vulnerable borrowers.

Despite the formal directive initiating review processes and agency work, the memorandum's core objective was not achieved during the Trump administration. No comprehensive legislative reform package successfully advanced through Congress to restructure or exit the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac conservatorships. The enterprises remained under government control, though the agencies did continue internal policy discussions and submissions to Congress regarding potential reform pathways. The partial status of this action reflects the gap between presidential initiative and legislative accomplishment on this complex financial infrastructure issue.