Trump veers way off message with admission on affordability crisis: 'I don't want to'

President Donald Trump in recent weeks has vowed to make living in the US more affordable, as polls have consistently shown voters are giving him low marks on both his handling of the economy and inflation.

However, Trump undercut this pledge during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday in which he said he wanted—despite a nationwide housing crisis—to actively make housing even more expensive than it is today.

“Existing housing, people that own their home, we’re going to keep them wealthy, we’re going to keep those prices up,” Trump said. “We’re not going to destroy the value of their homes so that somebody that didn’t work very hard can buy a home.”

Trump added that his administration wanted to “make it easier to buy” a house by lowering interest rates, but then reiterated that he wanted to make houses themselves more expensive.

“There’s so much talk of, ‘Oh, we’re going to drive housing prices down,’” Trump said. “I don’t want to drive housing prices down, I want to drive housing prices up for people that own their homes. And they can be assured that’s what’s going to happen.”

The implications of the president’s remarks were obvious to those concerned about the nation’s affordable housing crisis and the struggle of working people trying to get by.

As Melanie D’Arrigo, executive director for the Campaign for New York Health, put it: “54% of Americans struggle to afford housing, and over 770,000 Americans are homeless—and Trump doesn’t think those numbers are high enough.”

A Fox News poll released on Wednesday found that 54% of Americans think the US is worse off now than it was a year ago, while just 31% say the country is in better shape. Just 25% of voters surveyed said they are better off now than they were a year ago, and more than 40% said that Trump’s economic policies have personally hurt them.

Given Trump’s already low numbers on economic performance, many observers were quick to ridicule him for his pledge to make existing houses less affordable for prospective buyers.

“Hello Donald this is your political strategist speaking,” George Pearkes, global macro strategist for Bespoke Investment Group, sarcastically wrote. “I am advising you today to please keep saying this stuff.”

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) argued that Trump’s views on housing prices put him well out of touch with most US voters.

“Trump only sees the world as a rich developer,” she wrote in a social media post. “He has never, and will never, care about creating affordable homeownership for working and middle class Americans.”

Vox writer Eric Levitz posted a not-so-subtle dig at Trump for straying so easily off message.

Polling analyst G. Elliott Morris, meanwhile, said that Trump’s inability to stay on message was entirely predictable given his notorious unpredictability.

“Trump launched an affordability-focused midterm campaign for Republicans this week, traveling to Iowa to give a speech about how good his presidency has been for the cost of living,” he wrote. “That’s going about as well as you’d think. Here POTUS is saying he is going to keep housing prices high.”