President Donald Trump is facing intense backlash after a top official floated a new proposal to address housing affordability issues in the United States.
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte said on Saturday the Trump administration is “working on” a 50-year mortgage plan — a significant shift from the standard 30-year fixed-rate mortgage that was set in the wake of the Great Depression. Trump has vowed to lower costs for home buyers since being sworn into office as prices have skyrocketed in recent years.
“Thanks to President Trump, we are indeed working on The 50 year Mortgage — a complete game changer,” Pulte wrote on social media platform X.
Pulte responded to a post from Trump’s Truth Social account in which he shared a graphic of himself next to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose administration oversaw the reform of mortgages following the Great Depression. A standard 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is popular for homebuyers due to its stability and low monthly payments over the set period of time.
Some Trump allies have praised the 50-year-mortgage idea for helping lower costs for young home buyers, but critics have argued a 50-year mortgage would leave Americans in debt for most of their lives.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a staunch Trump supporter who has recently turned critical of the Republican Party, shut down the proposal of a 50-year mortgage in a post on X.
“I don’t like 50-year mortgages as the solution to the housing affordability crisis. It will ultimately reward the banks, mortgage lenders. and home builders while people pay far more in interest over time and die before they ever pay off their home. In debt forever, in debt for life!” Greene wrote on X.
Conservative pundit Matt Walsh also slammed the idea.
“This just means your house will be owned by the bank until you die, and after. We don’t need 50-year mortgages. Get the illegal immigrants out of our country. Give America back to Americans,” he wrote.
Attorney and conservative political commentator Marina Medvin wrote: “Nothing about this concept is conservative. The 30-year mortgage became mainstream during FDR’s New Deal, when the federal government socialized mortgage risk. It created decades of taxpayer exposure. Why would this administration seek to copy and add on to New Deal politics?”
MeidasTouch co-founder Brett Meiselas said a 50-year mortgage could be the Trump administration’s “worst idea yet.” He also took a swipe other Trump’s proposal to send a $2,000 stipend to Americans instead of proposing a health care plan.
“A 50-year mortgage that turns Americans into lifelong debt slaves and hands even more profits to the banks. A $2,000 ‘healthcare stipend’ to replace actual health insurance. Republican politicians are pitching some of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard today. Unserious people,” Meiselas posted on X.
The MeidasTouch account wrote: “Buckle up. This is going to make the 2008 mortgage crisis look like the good old days.”
Trump has tried to address housing affordability costs, like pressuring the Fed to drop interest rates throughout this year and signing an executive order to issue “emergency price relief” for Americans on the first day of his second term. No further details about the 50-year mortgage have been publicly shared online by the administration as of Sunday.
The proposal also comes days after Democrats swept closely watched elections in New Jersey, Virginia and New York City last week. Many pundits said the Democratic candidates’ messages on affordability and the cost of living helped them connect with voters and prevail over their Republican rivals.
Trump faces fierce backlash for 50-year mortgage proposal: ‘In debt for life’
