Transcript
Ben Meiselas (0:00)
Take a look at these two Washington Post headlines. It is so revealing. One headline right after the election, it's this one. Why Trump should take credit for Biden's economy. He shouldn't implement his economy crashing ideas. Just claim credit for Biden's economy as your own. That's what the Washington Post was saying to Donald Trump. Well, take a look at the most recent headline when Donald Trump did not do that. Even though Donald Trump has not even assumed office yet, the chaos that he has brought to Washington, D.C. is having a major impact on mortgage rates. Here's the other Washington Post headline. Mortgage rates are up. That's a big problem for Trump. High housing costs have become part of the economic vibes that people see on a regular basis. And as you go through the article, economists are saying that Donald Trump has freaked out the bond market, which has the biggest impact on mortgage rates. And that's why mortgage rates are going up now in response to the chaos that they believe Donald Trump will cause and is already causing on the economy. Let me just read this for you, if I can, for a second. Mortgage rates are rising again, nearing 7%. Donald Trump got elected promising the opposite. He said the following. We will drive down the rates so you will be able to pay 2% again and we will be able to finance or refinance your homes drastically, trump said in September. The article goes on to say Trump gets away with saying a lot of things and never doing them. You think? But on housing, voters seem to want action. Not only was it a top issue with voters all over the country, but in the toughest markets, where home prices have often doubled in recent years and inventory remains low, Voters swung to Trump because of his lies, what he promised. But he's a liar in bringing down the mortgage rates. The housing crisis is real. It's one of the worst times to buy a home in 40 years. And then goes on to say mortgage rates might turn out to be Trump's Achilles heel. Presidents don't control them. And just the threat of his proposed economic agenda, widely viewed as inflationary, has worsened the problem before he has taken office. Can I read that one more time? Just the threat of Trump's economic agenda, viewed as inflationary, has worsened the problem before he has even taken office. Since the election, borrowing costs have climbed in response to dramatic moves in the bond and the bond market, which has the greatest influence on mortgage rates right now. Investors think Trump is going to do what he said on the trail, spend trillions of dollars on cuts in 2025, increase our deficit by trillions of dollars and then enact a bunch of tariffs that increase the price for many common goods, including lumber and shingles. This is the key reason mortgage rates have been rising the past two months because of Trump, even though the Federal Reserve has been cutting the benchmark U.S. interest rates. You take a look at the chart here. Mortgage rates are up out of the fear of what Trump will do when he assumes office. And it's being caused right now when he's just going through his transition process. That's the amount of volatility that he is causing. Now, we previously reported yesterday as well that Walmart has said as a result of Trump's threatened tariffs that they are concerned that there will be significantly higher cost to consumers. So remember when Donald Trump said like he did in 2016, he said, I'm going to build the wall and Mexico is going to pay for it. Well, lie, this time around, Donald Trump said, I'm going to tariff China 2000%. That's not a tax on Americans. It's like quite literally what a tariff is, is a tax that gets passed through to the consumer. It taxes American corporations. That's just what a tariff is. Here is the Walmart CFO on CNBC saying, look, we want to have lower prices, but Trump's tariffs mean consumers are going to pay a lot more money when they show up at Walmart's. Play this clip.