Trump’s affordability crisis hits his supporters hardest as he calls housing bill of ‘minor importance’

People outside the Brooklyn office of Nicole Malliotakis, a House representative, to protest her decision to vote in favor of the big beautiful bill on 29 May 2025. Photograph: Erik McGregor/LightRocket/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenPeople outside the Brooklyn office of Nicole Malliotakis, a House representative, to protest her decision to vote in favor of the big beautiful bill on 29 May 2025. Photograph: Erik McGregor/LightRocket/Getty ImagesUS economyAnalysisTrump’s affordability crisis hits his supporters hardest as he calls housing bill of ‘minor importance’Eduardo PorterA housing shortfall, record home costs and cuts to subsidies are intensifying the US affordability crunch

Of the various dimensions of the affordability crisis weighing on US families, housing probably weighs heaviest. The typical home price has risen above five times the annual income of the typical family. The monthly cost of owning a home has hit record highs.

The US faces a housing shortfall of millions of homes. But builders are not rushing to meet the shortfall. The supply of new homes declined over 14% in May, compared to May of 2025. Moody’s Analytics expects single-family and multifamily residential investment to contract every year between now and 2030.

Dysfunctional though we know it to be, Congress finally stepped up to the challenge. In a bipartisan move, for the first time in 30 years it passed legislation that would accelerate homebuilding, relaxing environmental reviews and other federal regulations that stymie housing development.

Then, Donald Trump said no. He wouldn’t sign the legislation until Congress passed a bill to limit mail-in voting and require voters to submit proof of citizenship, a brazen attempt to discourage minority voters and protect Republican majorities under the guise of defending US democracy from some false claims of voter fraud. The housing legislation is, by comparison, “of minor importance”, he said.

Almost two years into the second Trump administration, it is evident that the president’s abiding objective has been to empower and enrich himself and his offspring; the greater good be damned. It is nonetheless surprising how every one of Trump’s policy initiatives has sabotaged some core constituency. It’s getting hard to find a bit of his base that he hasn’t torched. It seems as if, supremely confident in their blind loyalty, he is daring the Maga faithful to drop him.

Launching a war against Iran before figuring out its objectives or how it might unfold, probably takes the cake: the surge in gas prices following Iran’s utterly predictable decision to close the strait of Hormuz dismantled one of the key claims that gave Trump the presidency: that he would slay inflation.

Rising inflation means that real wages are now, on average, declining. Moody’s Mark Zandi estimates that by June the rising cost of energy had eaten up the higher refunds taxpayers got from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.

Iran is hardly his only effort to raise energy prices. The accelerated reduction of subsidies for solar power development in his One Big Beautiful Bill, added to his efforts to stop investment in wind farms, are driving up the prices of renewable energy, even as demand for power from AI datacenters soars.

In case higher gas and power prices aren’t enough to piss Americans off, Trump has also raised their healthcare costs. Enrollment in health insurance policies under the Affordable Care Act could decline by five to six million this year, due to the abrupt ending of government subsidies that led to a 58% increase in premiums, on average.

And Trump’s broad punitive policies against the salt of the earth – which also include cuts to food assistance and health insurance for the poor under Medicaid – were complemented with specific swipes against narrower constituencies.

Take farmers, among Trump’s most loyal supporters. In 2024, he won 433 of the nation’s 444 farming-dependent counties. Still, his trade war against China contributed to a $17bn decline in exports to their main Asian market last year, while his hostility towards Canada led to a $1bn decline in farm exports to the US’s northern neighbor.