Why won't Trump sign a bipartisan housing bill?

Summary

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NPR Politics Podcast – "Why won't Trump sign a bipartisan housing bill?"

Published: June 25, 2026
Featuring: Tamara Keith, Stephen Bassaha, Mara Liasson

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Episode Overview

This episode examines President Trump’s last-minute decision not to sign a landmark bipartisan housing affordability bill, moments before a planned ceremony. The hosts break down the content of the bill, Trump's motivations, its political fallout—particularly for Republicans—and prospects for the bill’s future. The conversation also touches on Trump’s push for the unrelated SAVE Act on voting rules, and the broader implications for the American Dream and the midterms.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Scene: Trump’s Surprise Move (00:16)

• Tamara Keith opens by recounting the dramatic setup: an actual stage at the Capitol, the presidential seal on the signing table—all set for the bill’s signing, before Trump abruptly cancels.
• Mara Liasson quotes Trump:

  “I said, I'm not signing the housing bill. I wanna see what happens. We said, look, the housing bill is housing. I made billions of dollars with housing.” (00:45)

• Stephen Bassaha adds Trump’s comment:

  “I know housing better than anybody, maybe anywhere.” (00:54)

2. What’s in the Bipartisan Housing Bill? (01:19–06:03)

• Largest housing legislation in decades:
  Stephen: "It's really all about housing affordability" and compared to “a giant meatball” (borrowing from Sen. Warren) containing “ingredients” from both parties.
• Bipartisan effort:
  Co-sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) and Sen. Tim Scott (R).
• Key Provisions:
  • Limits large investors: Caps corporate ownership at 350 homes, addressing concerns about Wall Street firms crowding out families—especially in markets like Atlanta.
  • Encourages local new housing: Reduces federal red tape, shuffles existing federal funds as incentives—no new government spending or aid, unlike historic programs like the GI Bill or Section 8.
  • Conservative flavor: “If it’s anything, it’s about getting the federal government out of the way to encourage more home building.” (Stephen, 05:32)
• Mara:

  “That’s why it passed with such big margins.” (06:03)

3. Trump’s Social Media U-Turn (06:05–07:27)

• Trump attacked the bill online, focusing on Elizabeth Warren and using a racial slur (“Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren centric housing bill”).
• Dismissed the bill as “of minor importance compared to lowering interest rates, FISA, Save America Act,” and called to end the filibuster.
• Announced the signing “hereby canceled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE act.”

4. The SAVE Act Distraction (07:27–07:57)

• The SAVE Act proposes strict voting requirements: Voter ID, proof of citizenship to register, restrictions on mail voting.
• Highly divisive, no chance of passage: “His Save America act does not have the votes to pass.” (Tamara, 07:27)

5. Trump’s Motivations & GOP Fallout (07:57–11:04)

• Mara Liasson:

  “[Trump] sees his powers as unlimited… he can’t bend reality to his will all the time, and he’s really frustrated. So he picked up the first tool he could, which is I’m not gonna sign this bill now. At the same time, he’s… undermining his own Republicans who were hoping that this bill would give them a big boost in the midterms.” (08:00–08:36)

• Potentially undermines the GOP’s midterm strategy:
  • They wanted a clear, bipartisan win to tout.
  • Trump’s move may create an opening for Democrats:

    “If Democrats can take advantage of it, if they start running ads that say, you know Congress voted to give you help with housing, Donald Trump threw it in the garbage can…” (Mara, 10:31)

6. Credit & Blame: Elizabeth Warren’s Response (11:04–11:49)

• Stephen notes that by calling it Warren’s bill, Trump “handed credit over to Democratic Democrats.”
• Warren responds:

  “He wants to blame Democrats and blame me for busting our tails to try to lower costs for American families. Well, bring on the blame.” (Mara, 11:37)

7. Housing, the American Dream, and Voter Anger (12:01–13:06)

• Statistics on housing unaffordability:
  • Average income needed for the average house: ~$117,000 (vs. typical ~$87,000 family income).
  • Median home price: $400,000—“around $100,000 more than it was around the start of the pandemic.” (Stephen, 12:55)
  • First-time homebuyer age now 40.
• Mara Liasson describes widespread voter cynicism and a populist mood:

  “Voters… don't think they're poor, but they do feel broke.” (13:06)

  • “Trump is really misreading the room… almost going out of his way to paint himself and his party as people who don't care about ordinary Americans and their struggles.” (13:06)

8. Why Block Housing Legislation for a Voting Bill? (14:14–15:13)

• Trump’s holdout is to push for the SAVE Act—a voting bill, not related to housing.
• Mara:

  “[The SAVE Act] would give him… the federal government, a tremendous amount of new power over the mechanics of voting. And critics say it would give them him the ability to undermine legitimately cast votes.” (14:28)

9. The Bill’s Future: Is It Really Dead? (15:13–15:53)

• Veto-proof majorities:
  The House still has to send the bill to the White House. If Trump ignores it for 10 days and doesn’t veto, it becomes law automatically:

  “Then he gets the worst of both worlds. He doesn't get any credit because he trashed the thing and it goes into effect anyway.” (Mara, 15:33)

• At recording, Speaker Mike Johnson was scheduled to meet with Trump about the bill.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I made billions of dollars with housing.” – President Trump (as quoted by Mara Liasson, 00:45)
• “It's got all these different ingredients… a giant meatball.” – Stephen Bassaha on the bill’s complexity (01:31)
• “It was almost like a cosmic joke on Congress… and then Trump blew it up at the last moment.” – Mara Liasson (02:23)
• “We want homes for people, not for corporations.” – President Trump, State of the Union (paraphrased, quoted by Mara, 03:39)
• “Bring on the blame.” – Sen. Elizabeth Warren (relayed by Mara, 11:37)
• “In a normal election year, it would really hurt the incumbent party. We don't know if this is going to be a normal election year…” – Mara Liasson (13:06)

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Timeline of Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Focus | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:16 | Trump abruptly refuses to sign the housing bill | | 01:19 | Hosts introduce background and guests | | 01:31-06:03 | Breakdown of bill’s contents, why it matters, its boldness | | 06:05 | Trump’s social media attack and cancellation | | 07:27 | SAVE Act and its role in Trump's decision | | 10:06 | Political implications for the midterms | | 12:01 | Data: housing unaffordability and “American Dream” context | | 13:06 | Voters’ frustrations, populist moment, Trump’s possible misreading | | 14:14 | The logic and risks of holding up housing for the SAVE Act | | 15:13 | Potential for bill to become law without Trump’s signature | | 15:53 | Speaker Johnson set to meet Trump—uncertainty remains |

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Tone & Final Thoughts

The discussion is sharply analytical but tinged with incredulity—both at the rarity of bipartisan progress and at Trump’s willingness to torpedo it for leverage on unrelated voting reforms. The hosts underscore the disconnect between political maneuvering and everyday concerns like housing, and express skepticism at the wisdom of Trump’s gamble, especially as voters’ frustration with affordability grows.

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Summary By: NPR Politics Podcast Team, as recapped for listeners and readers.

Transcript

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[Tamara Keith]

So this crazy thing happened yesterday. The stage was set for President Trump to sign a big bipartisan bill to address the cost of housing in America. And when I say the stage was set, it was literally set. There was a stage in the Capitol. The presidential seal was attached to the table where the president was gonna sit and sign the bill. And then at the last minute, the president said he wasn't going to sign it.

[Mara Liasson]

I said, I'm not signing the housing bill. I wanna see what happens. We said, look, the housing bill is housing. I made billions of dollars with housing.

[Stephen Bassaha]

I know housing better than anybody, maybe anywhere.

[Tamara Keith]

And that's what we're talking about on the pod today, the housing bill and the political implications of this blow up. So let's get to it. Hey there. It's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover politics.

[Stephen Bassaha]

I'm Stephen Bassaha. I cover personal finance.

[Mara Liasson]

And I'm Mara Liasson, senior national political correspondent.

[Tamara Keith]

And we are recording this podcast at 1:05pm Eastern Time on Thursday, June 25. And Stephen, let's get right to it. What is this bill designed to do?

[Stephen Bassaha]

You know, this is the largest piece of housing legislation in literal decades. And it's really all about housing affordability. There's not just like one main way it tries to get to that. Like Elizabeth Warren, senator, who was co sponsoring this bill, she basically described it like a giant meatball. It's got all these different ingredients in it to try and help and really ingredients that came from different Republicans and Democrats. This is truly a bipartisan bill, not just in votes, but also in how the whole thing got written and put together.

[Tamara Keith]

And Mara, as Stephen says, this was a bipartisan bill. You have Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat, and Tim Scott, the South Carolina Republican, sort of pushing this through together. Given how little Congress gets done these days and how little of that is bipartisan, this, this almost seemed remarkable.

[Mara Liasson]

It was remarkable. It was almost like a cosmic joke on Congress. All of a sudden, they finally did what the public says they want Congress to do, work across the aisle, focus on a problem that a vast majority of voters want solved, like how hard it is to buy a home, make compromises. But then Trump blew it up at the last moment. And the thing that's even more remarkable is that we had never heard Any real policy objections from him or the. And the White House had even praised the bill, I think, just hours before he decided not to sign it. So this reminds us that this is a very personalist presidency. It's governed by what Donald Trump wants at a given moment, and he wants a different bill passed, the SAVE act, where there are not the votes to pass it.

[Tamara Keith]

So we will get to that. But I want to dig in a little bit more on what this bipartisan bill did. You know, President Trump talked about it in his State of the Union address. He told this story of a mom from Texas who was trying to buy a house, and she bid on 20 different homes, only to lose out each time to private equity firms that were paying cash. He called for a ban on large Wall street investment firms buying up homes by the thousands.

[Mara Liasson]

And now I'm asking Congress to make that ban permanent, because homes for people, really, that's what we want. We want homes for people, not for corporations. Corporations are doing just fine.

[Tamara Keith]

So, Stephen, does this bill do what President Trump was asking for?

[Stephen Bassaha]

It does. I mean, it's not a full permanent ban, but if this bill were to become law at some point somehow, now, it would put a cap, essentially, if you're a large investor, you cannot own more than 350 homes. Now, how much this would actually help with housing affordability. I mean, private equity is a small part of the housing market right now, but it is a big, big slice in some areas like Atlanta, where you are hearing about private equity putting down these all cash offers and making it so other people, families, can't really compete. And there's warnings that could spread to other areas. And this bill would cap that.

[Tamara Keith]

And what else is in this bill?

[Stephen Bassaha]

Well, the main thing it's trying to do is address housing affordability by increasing supply. So think classic supply and demand. You increase the supply ahead of demand, then you're going to lower prices. Now, Congress cannot just say, hey, we order millions of new houses to get built. Instead, what this bill tries to do is encourage home building mainly by cutting back on some federal regulations, really making it easier for home builders actually start doing this. There's no actually new money in here. It's kind of shuffling old money around. And, like, it also has, like, you know, a lot of housing is actually local. So it has this provision in there that says places that build more, communities that build more, they will get more federal dollars, and places that build less will get less. So ideally encouraging more kind of local innovation and changes to zoning laws. But again, there is no new money in here. So if you compare it to like previous really big pieces of housing legislation, like this current bill is not like the GI Bill, which is now more than 80 years old, which had these great, like, kind of loan options for veterans. And then the housing choice voucher program for the 1970s, essentially Section 8, that does still provide financing for low income people to afford housing. This doesn't do any of that. This is a much more conservative bill. It is not about government spending and expanding that, if it's anything. It's about getting the federal government out of the way to encourage more home building.

[Mara Liasson]

That's why it passed with such big margins.

[Tamara Keith]

And that brings us to yesterday, shortly before that bill signing ceremony, President Trump started posting. Mara, what did he say?

[Mara Liasson]

He took to his favorite communications medium, social media, and he attacked the bill because of one of its sponsors, Elizabeth Warren, and he used a racial slur about her that he's used many times in the past. He said, quote, the Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren centric housing bill. He went on to say that it is of minor importance compared to lowering interest rates, fisa, Save America Act. And then he went on to tell Congress to terminate the filibuster. So he's belittling the importance of housing when voters across the board say housing is one of their most important issues. He also posted today's housing news conference. And signing is hereby canceled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE act, he says, which I consider to be a national emergency. And remember, he is the national emergency president. He has used national emergencies and as an excuse to do all sorts of things, many of which have been subsequently knocked down by the courts.

[Tamara Keith]

And he has also, in the not so distant past, said he wouldn't sign another bill because he wanted the SAVE act passed first. So this is actually.

[Mara Liasson]

He's threatened this. Yes, he's threatened this before, but this is the first time he's actually had a bill ready to literally ready to go, quite literally.

[Tamara Keith]

And just to explain what the SAVE act would do, it would require voter id, proof of citizenship in order to register to vote, and it would put limitations on voting by mail. Some of these provisions are popular, others are not. Others divide. Even Republicans and Republican senators just keep telling him that this bill, his Save America act, does not have the votes to pass. So, Mara, what do you make of this move by the president?

[Mara Liasson]

I think it's an expression of how frustrated Donald Trump is on the limits of his power because he sees his powers as unlimited, whether it's his own Republicans in the Senate who, although they are pretty darn loyal to him, don't do every single thing he wants when he wants them to do it. Or, or maybe it's Iran who has not unconditionally surrendered. He can't bend reality to his will all the time, and he's really frustrated. So he picked up the first tool he could, which is I'm not gonna sign this bill now. At the same time, he's doing something to really undermine his own Republicans who were hoping that this bill would give them a big boost in the midterms.

[Tamara Keith]

All right, we're gonna talk more about those political implications when we get back, but first, a quick break.

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[Stephen Bassaha]

This week on Consider this.

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In New York, big primary wins for

[Stephen Bassaha]

congressional candidates backed by New York City

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Mayor Zahran Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, does his brand of politics offer a new blueprint for Democrats?

[Tamara Keith]

For far too long, we haven't been able to answer what we're fighting for,

[Stephen Bassaha]

only who we're fighting.

[Tamara Keith]

And now we have the answer. Zahran Mamdani on Consider this Listen on

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the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tamara Keith]

And we're back. And Mara, as you alluded to, Republicans need something to run on in this midterm election. They currently have a governing trifecta. They have the House, the Senate, and the White House. And they need to convince the American people that after November, they should still have all that power. Did Trump not signing this bill just undermine those efforts?

[Mara Liasson]

I think he did. If Democrats can take advantage of it, if they start running ads that say, you know Congress voted to, to give you help with housing. Donald Trump threw it in the garbage can. Or Donald Trump says the housing bill is of minor importance. He doesn't care about people like you. I mean, there's a million iterations of this. So I think this is just yet another example of Trump saying something or doing something that Republicans really worry is going to hurt their chances in the midterms. And that does depend if Democrats can take advantage of it.

[Stephen Bassaha]

And I think I was even more surprised, rather than him not signing the bill, the fact that he gave credit to it to a Democrat, Senator Elizabeth Warren. I mean, this bill was so bipartisan. And I kept on hearing that, oh this, everyone's getting behind it because of the midterms. They want this big housing legislation to go on. But again, it was Republicans and Democrats. So it's like, well, they're running against each other. Who gets credit for this at the end of the day? And he essentially handed credit over to Democratic Democrats. And I did call up Senator Elizabeth Warren after this and I asked her about him, basically saying this was her bill.

[Mara Liasson]

He wants to blame Democrats and blame me for busting our tails to try to lower costs for American families. Well, bring on the blame.

[Stephen Bassaha]

And Senator Warren, she did thank Republicans who worked hard to make this actually happen. But she said what really matters is actually delivering. And right now we have a Republican president that is stopping that.

[Tamara Keith]

Owning a home is a major part of the idea that is the American dream. And, and it's just something that feels so unattainable to so many people right now, especially young people.

[Stephen Bassaha]

There was this report recently from the real estate company Redfin. And in order to afford the average home available for sale in America right now, a family needs to make around $117,000 a year. That's around 30 ish thousand dollars more than what the typical American family does make. And I mean, the median age for first time home buyers is now 40 years old because of this. And as a 35 year old renter, I do appreciate that I've not fallen behind. But you know, Trump was in Davos in January and he said Americans would not become a nation of renters. But you know, the math is keeping us, a lot of us as renters.

[Tamara Keith]

Yeah, a little more math for me. What is the median home price right now in America?

[Stephen Bassaha]

It's around $400,000, which is around $100,000 more than it was around the start of the pandemic.

[Tamara Keith]

That's a remarkable increase.

[Stephen Bassaha]

Yeah, it's huge.

[Mara Liasson]

You know, it seems Like Trump is really misreading the room for these midterm elections. I mean, the conversations that I've had with voters in focus groups or elsewhere, I can't think of a midterm which, where voters have been as cynical, as angry, as bitter, feeling like not only is the American Dream not attainable anymore, and the American dream is pretty simple. If you work hard and play by the rules, you can do as well or better than your parents. We're in a populist moment, and Donald Trump used to be pretty good at hitching a ride on that. That's how he got elected in the first place. But it seems like he's almost going out of his way to paint himself and his party as people who don't care about ordinary Americans and their struggles. And they do feel they're struggling. As I've said before, they don't think they're poor, but they do feel broke. And this seems to be really tone deaf. And in a normal election year, it would really hurt the incumbent party. We don't know if this is going to be a normal election year because we've had extreme partisan gerrymandering. And the Republican Party, you know, has other big, big structural advantages.

[Tamara Keith]

Well, and, and Mara, I, I wonder if you could just talk a little bit about the fact that the President is holding up this housing affordability bill to push for an elections related bill.

[Mara Liasson]

That's right. He, he acts like he doesn't care about the elections. He's even said famously, I don't care about the midterms. But that bill that he wants passed, the SAVE act, would give him Republicans, the federal government, a tremendous amount of new power over the mechanics of voting. And critics say it would give them him the ability to undermine legitimately cast votes. So he seems to be very concerned about the outcome of elections. Concerned enough to blow up a housing bill in order to pass his voting legislation. But at the same time, almost every day he says something that undercuts his party's ability to win the midterms. So I can't really explain that.

[Tamara Keith]

I'm not sure either. One thing I'm wondering about, though, is this bill was so popular, it passed with such overwhelming, one might say, veto proof majorities. Is there a way that this thing still becomes law and isn't dead whether Trump wants it or not?

[Mara Liasson]

Absolutely. Because if Donald Trump gets the bill, and of course he hasn't gotten it yet officially, the House has to send it to him and he waits 10 days and he doesn't sign it or veto it. Well, it becomes law. Then he gets the worst of both worlds. He doesn't get any credit because he trashed the thing and it goes into effect anyway. And Democrats can claim credit.

[Tamara Keith]

Yeah. So I guess we will see what happens. I do know that speaker of the House Mike Johnson, at the the time of this taping, is set to meet with President Trump today at the White House. And this housing bill is on the agenda. So it's possible Trump ends up signing it after all, or who knows? But we will continue following it. All right. We are going to leave it there for today. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover politics.

[Stephen Bassaha]

I'm Stephen Massaha, and I cover personal finance.

[Mara Liasson]

And I'm Mara Liasson, senior national political correspondent.

[Tamara Keith]

And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Politics podcast.

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[Tamara Keith]

our capacity for forgiveness.

[Stephen Bassaha]

We're all wounded and we're broken, and how do we become friends with our wounds so that we can enter into relational wholeness with each other.

[Tamara Keith]

Find out where divine grace comes from on Ye Gods with Scott Carter.

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[Stephen Bassaha]

you get your podcasts.