by Emily Singer

Staff

Thursday, June 25, 2026 at 11:30 AM EDT

6 Comments

Construction workers install a lumber roof at a new home build Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Laveen, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) — Construction workers install a lumber roof at a new home in Arizona.AP

President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his decision not to sign a landmark housing bill that was overwhelmingly passed by the House and Senate, saying that he doesn’t want to lower housing costs because it would hurt people who have gotten rich off their home purchases.

“You have to understand—I don’t want to hurt people that own houses, too,” Trump said in the Oval Office, where he was holding a media availability with the leader of NATO. “These people, for the first time in their lives, they have valuable houses. They become rich. I don’t want to hurt them either.”

It’s the latest head-scratching comment he’s made that makes you wonder if he is trying to lose this fall’s midterm elections for his party. He is refusing to sign a bill to help more people afford homes, at a time when the median homeowner is 38 times richer than the median renter, according to a December 2024 CNN analysis. Voters are angry about the surging cost of living and are practically begging Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress to do something about it.

It’s especially galling as the comment came hours before the government released the latest inflation report, which showed Trump’s Iran war spiked inflation to 4.1% in May. That’s the highest level since April 2023.

Ultimately, inflation and high prices are far and away the most important issues for voters in the upcoming midterms, with 31% listing “inflation/prices” as their top issue, according to an Economist/YouGov poll released Tuesday. The second-place issue, with 16%, is “jobs and the economy,” which is intricately tied to inflation.

That’s terrible news for the GOP given that Trump’s approval on the economy is at just 33%, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.

This dismal economic picture is why Republicans passed the bipartisan housing bill in the first place. They hoped their support for legislation that seeks to lower housing costs would help them with voters in November.

The bipartisan bill would, among other things, ban private-equity investors from gobbling up the single-family home inventory—a phenomenon that has driven up costs for average Americans.

However, Trump pulled the rug out from under congressional Republicans on Wednesday, canceling a bill-signing ceremony minutes before it was scheduled to start. Trump said that he won’t sign the bill until Congress passes the voter suppression SAVE America Act, an awful piece of legislation that has no shot of passage.

However, his later admission that he didn’t sign the bill because he doesn’t want to hurt rich Americans may be the real reason he is holding up the bill.

In fact, it’s not even the first time he’s made a comment like that.

At a Cabinet meeting in January, Trump said this: “People that own their homes, we’re gonna keep them wealthy. We’re gonna keep those prices up. We’re not gonna destroy the value of their homes so that somebody who didn’t work very hard can buy a home. … I don’t want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up.”

Instead, Trump has said he wants to see interest rates lowered to make it easier for people to buy homes, even though lowering interest rates can raise inflation and, as a result, housing costs.

In fact, experts say that it’s high interest rates that cause housing prices to drop.

“If mortgage rates stay high the remainder of the year, home prices will start falling. It’s the basic premise of supply and demand. If the demand starts to fall due to higher rates, the supply will increase, and home prices will slowly fall,” Jeremy Schachter, branch manager at Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation in Phoenix, Arizona, told CBS News earlier this month.

Schachter added, “If mortgage rates come down, more buyers will come into the market, and home prices may stabilize or even increase.”

Leave it to Trump, who has bankrupted casinos, to get it completely wrong.

Democrats, for their part, are already using Trump’s comments in their messaging.

“Trump just said he won’t sign a bill to lower housing costs. Are we surprised?” Sen. Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, wrote in a Facebook post. “He called the affordability crisis a hoax and said he ‘loves inflation’—all while he gets billions of dollars richer. Americans deserve a president who actually cares about the pain they’re feeling.”

And Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who co-sponsoered the bill Trump refuses to sign, said the president doesn’t care about lowering prices for Americans.

“The cost of food is up. The cost of utilities is up. The cost of gasoline is up. The cost of healthcare is through the roof. The cost of housing is up,” Warren said at a news conference on Capitol Hill. “Donald Trump may not care, but Democrats do.”

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All Comments

Comment by TexasTom.
44 min ago
What Trump understands about economics could fit inside a nanoparticle. The man seems to be ignorant about pretty much every aspect of the field.
Aside from that, didn't he also recently say that nobody "gives a shit about housing"? Since it isn't an issue that impacts him, he is incapable of understanding why it matters to other people. To be able to understand would require that the man possess empathy, which is not a trait that will ever be exhibited by a sociopath like Trump.
Comment by codestar7.
48 min ago
"So that people who don't work very hard can buy a house"? WTF Drumpf has never "worked" a day in his life. How could he possibly know?
Comment by sfmikey1.
59 min ago
Once again, Trump reveals the "art of the deal" is blackmail.
Can't wait until the Extortionist-in-Chief is yesterday's fish-wrap. (Although repairing the damage will be a long, hard slog.)
Comment by Desert Scientist.
1 hr ago
Of course! Why would a real estate con-man want people who don't deserve it (are not at least millionaires) to own a home? Born with a gold spoon in his mouth he of course sees vast wealth as a sign of superiority. He was also apparently born with a Louis XIV complex as he sees gold on everything as a sign of his superior intellect, which no other living being can match, let alone POC or a mere woman. That's why it infuriates him to see the Obamas so popular. In his mind, they don't deserve it, he does!!
Why did so many people not see this coming? If we ever get out of this mess (that 77 million people put us all in) for whatever diety's sake, let's appreciate what we have and work to make it better!!
Comment by Carnelian Orb.
1 hr ago
Surprise, surprise, surprise!
The orange pedophile hates your average American.
Comment by Grabber by the Heel.
1 hr ago
So is Trump not signing the housing bill to force repubs to pass his voter suppression bill or is he really trying to kill the housing bill to protect 'homeowners' meaning real estate hedge funds and banksters?
The grift and graft are endless with this one.