The housing solution Trump is avoiding

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If there is one thing that Donald Trump wants Americans to understand, it is that he knows how to build.

At a Pennsylvania petrochemical plant in 2019, he told workers: “I was a good builder. I built well. I love building.” Speaking to reporters in the spring: “What I do best in life is build. » At last year’s Kennedy Center Honors, Trump joked that he had “two jobs” — the second being, of course, construction.

Even though past projects have failed, Trump continues to position himself as the kind of high-profile developer who cuts through red tape and never takes no for an answer. This is the president who once wooed voters by promising to build a “big, beautiful” wall along the southern border. Who, did he support during the 2016 election campaign, was best placed to achieve this? During his second term, he focused on remaking the landscape of Washington, D.C., in his image.

But earlier this week, Trump showed he was willing to delay construction of something Americans have made clear they need. On Tuesday, lawmakers passed the largest housing bill in a generation, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. Co-sponsored by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott, it is a bipartisan omnibus bill with reforms intended to encourage development and lower prices. Trump needs to win; Right now, most Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of the economy. But on Wednesday, Trump abruptly canceled the bill signing ceremony. It will remain canceled, he wrote at Truth Social, until Congress passes the SAVE America Act, a completely unrelated and highly controversial voter ID law. (He called it his “No. 1 priority” ahead of the midterm elections.)

The blocked bill targets a pressing national concern. About a third of American households spend more than a third of their income on rent and mortgage payments, and nearly four in five voters identify the cost of housing as an extremely or very important issue. The fact that Trump halted the signing shows he is willing to use a bipartisan bill as collateral, even if it means sacrificing the prospect of affordable housing for Americans. While this move falls within his procedural rights, it is also ineffective: With the bill having passed both the House and Senate, it is expected to become law in 10 days with or without the president’s signature. And even if Trump decides to veto it, Congress (barring a sudden reversal) has the supermajority required to override a veto. Additionally, the president cannot unilaterally force passage of the SAVE America Act, which faces fierce opposition from Democrats.

It’s difficult to quantify the scale of the nation’s housing crisis (some analysts believe the U.S. is short 6 million homes, while others think the number is closer to 2 million), but experts tend to agree that building more housing in areas of highest need could help. The ROAD to Housing Act is not a panacea, and many of its proposals will only take effect in the long term. But by speeding up environmental reviews and encouraging lawmakers to relax zoning restrictions, among other proposals, the bill aims to encourage new construction.

Trump delivered mixed messages on housing affordability throughout his second term. White House press releases make passing mention of increasing housing supply, and Trump issued an executive order in March directing agencies to ease regulatory barriers to housing construction. His push for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy back mortgage bonds proved to have little lasting effect on rates. But lately, the president’s own comments have focused on the needs of existing homeowners. “I don’t want to drive down property prices; I want to raise housing prices for people who own their homes,” he said earlier this year. Homeowners of course want their investments protected, but the incentives the housing bill gives developers to build would not automatically decrease the value of all American homes. And in some cases, encouraging more construction could promote economic growth and increase land values ​​in the long term.

Although the administration has taken steps to address the housing crisis, its efforts have at times been misdirected. In an effort to protect individual homeowners (known as family landlords), who currently dominate the real estate market, Trump issued an executive order in January aimed at limiting the influence of institutional investors — a nebulous umbrella term for some large corporations. Parts of the housing bill echo this idea. But, as my colleagues have explained, the panic over the effect of institutional buying on house prices seems overblown. Although large corporate landlords pose a real problem in some communities (corporations are more likely to evict tenants and may neglect upkeep and maintenance), institutional investors own less than 1 percent of single-family homes nationwide.

Whether Trump is a “good” builder is a question best left to architecture’s critics, and perhaps its creditors. But it’s undeniable that he builds. With his triumphal arch project, his modifications to the Reflecting Pool, and his renovation of the White House, he attempted to reorganize the seat of government around his own aesthetic preferences. Its recently announced presidential library, which could also be a hotel, could permanently change Miami’s skyline.

The ROAD to Housing Act may still be a victory for this administration — and the president may even take credit for efforts to make housing more affordable. But he still has to prove to the American people that he will build for them, and not just for himself.

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The United States struck Iranian missile and drone storage sites yesterday in response to the Iranian drone attack on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz. John Bolton, a former adviser to President Trump and author of a book criticizing him, pleaded guilty to a charge of illegally possessing classified information. A judge declares a mistrial in the case against a man accused of committing an arson that later became the Palisades fire; federal prosecutors said they would retry him.

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