Not long after he tried to channel his inner Warren Buffett by making a splashy $85-a-share bid for Howard Hughes Corporation, Ackman’s attention has shifted to a pair of government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) deeply embedded in the U.S. housing market: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (think Zillow addiction, but institutionalized).

What’s he on his knees praying will happen? That Donald Trump, a man who once turned a campaign slogan into a real estate empire, will take these mortgage giants private. If Ackman’s instincts prove right, the windfall could be so massive it might even convince him to take a break from hate-tweeting. Well, maybe.

For over a decade, Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) have been chilling under government conservatorship. (AKA: Uncle Sam took their keys after the 2008 housing meltdown and hasn’t given them back.) In case you’ve forgotten that disaster, here’s a quick recap: millions of Americans lost their homes, Fannie and Freddie needed a $189 billion bailout, and Wall Street threw itself a pity party that ended with the Dodd-Frank Act.

But Ackman sees untapped potential. He argues that privatizing these GSEs could not only generate a cool $300 billion in additional government profits but also erase $8 trillion in liabilities from federal balance sheets. Talk about a win-win… if you ignore the part where mortgage rates could climb higher than your cousin’s credit card APR. Ackman’s pitch is simple. He believes Trump will see the privatization of Fannie and Freddie as an irresistible legacy project. As he put it on X (formerly Twitter): “Trump likes big deals, and this would be the biggest deal in history.” Subtle, Bill. Real subtle.

Let’s not forget that Ackman isn’t just an armchair analyst here. Pershing Square owns a hefty chunk of Fannie and Freddie shares, and taking these GSEs private could unlock $1 billion in investment gains for his firm. In other words, this isn’t philanthropy… it’s a calculated wager. Of course, not everyone is lining up to buy what Ackman’s selling. Critics argue that privatization could rattle an already insanely expensive housing market. Higher mortgage rates could price out homebuyers at a time when affordability is already a cruel joke. And while Trump has teased the idea of privatizing Fannie and Freddie before, his first administration ran out of time to make it happen.

The Ackman-Trump housing hypothesis isn’t without precedent. During Trump’s first term, his administration floated plans to end the conservatorship, even drafting a framework that included a massive IPO. But the pandemic threw a wrench into those plans, leaving the task unfinished. Now, Ackman is banking on Trump 2.0 to pick up where the first term left off. According to Mark Calabria, former head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, privatization is “100% mechanically doable by 2027.”

If Ackman’s right, he will be making a buttload of money. But even he isn’t pretending this is a sure thing. As he warned, “There remains a high degree of uncertainty about the ultimate outcome, so you should limit your exposure to what you can afford to lose if you choose to invest.” (In other words: Leave some shares for me, you retail peasants.) His message seems to be getting a lot of buyers, considering both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stocks are up 12% today.

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