The Most Important Housing Bill in Decades Became Law Without His Signature. He Called It a Yawn. He Was Shopping for Marble.
The 21st Century Road to Housing Act passed the House 358-32. It passed the Senate 85-5. Those are not normal margins. Those are the margins of a bill that virtually everyone in Congress agreed was necessary, urgent, and long overdue — a sweeping package of more than 40 provisions designed to increase the housing supply, lower costs for renters and first-time buyers, reduce regulatory barriers to construction, and address a crisis that has made homeownership unachievable for millions of Americans.
Trump dismissed the bipartisan housing legislation as a “yawn.”
A yawn. The most significant housing legislation in decades. Passed by a veto-proof majority. Supported by both the left-leaning Urban Institute and the right-leaning Taxpayers Protection Alliance. Called by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt “one of the most significant pieces of housing legislation in American history.” A yawn.
Trump posted on Truth Social: “I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT.”
He refused to sign a housing bill that would help millions of Americans afford homes because the Senate wouldn’t pass a voter ID bill he wanted. He held housing affordability hostage to election legislation. He lost — the Constitution says a bill becomes law automatically after ten days without a veto — and the housing bill became law at midnight Friday without his signature or his blessing.
He could not even be bothered to veto it. He just refused to touch it, like a child refusing to eat dinner, and the Constitution did the work he wouldn’t.
What He Was Doing Instead
Trump personally went shopping for marble and onyx for the White House ballroom in Florida. He posted photos on Truth Social of marble armrests he said could be installed at the Kennedy Center — the performing arts center he renamed after himself. “Unlike anything ever done or seen before!” he wrote.
The White House has undergone a number of renovations — most notably the razing of the historic East Wing to make room for a new mammoth ballroom. Trump also remodeled the Lincoln bathroom, which was last redone in 1945, and added gold fixtures and trim to the Oval Office.
Plans for the White House include fixes to water infiltration, updated electrical infrastructure, ADA compliance, and removal of asbestos and lead-based paint — supplemented by donated funds transferred to the White House Repair and Restoration Account.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced a planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom to accommodate approximately 650 seated guests. The ballroom costs up to $400 million. The marble and onyx are being personally selected by the president. The armrests are unlike anything ever done or seen before.
The housing bill — the one that would help Americans afford a place to sleep — is a yawn.
The ballroom — the one where 650 guests will sit in marble armrests — is a masterpiece.
The Numbers
The United States is approximately 4.5 million homes short of what the population needs. Home prices have increased 47% since 2020. Mortgage rates remain elevated. Rent burdens have hit record levels, with more than half of renters spending over 30% of their income on housing. The number of Americans experiencing homelessness has risen every year for the past three years.
The housing bill seeks to reduce federal regulatory barriers to housing construction, encourage local governments to reform restrictive zoning policies, expand incentives for new development and modernize building standards. It also includes provisions to speed permitting, strengthen federal housing and homelessness programs, promote manufactured and modular housing.
None of that is exciting. None of it can be photographed for Truth Social. None of it has marble armrests. It does not seat 650 at a formal dinner. It does not require shopping trips to Florida for onyx samples. It does not have gold trim. It is simply policy designed to help ordinary Americans afford the thing that most of human history has considered a basic requirement of a stable life — a roof. A room. A home.
Donald Trump has never needed to worry about that. He grew up in a mansion. He lives in a palace he is actively making more palatial. He is spending $400 million of other people’s money on a ballroom he will use to host the kind of people who have never worried about housing either.
The people who have been priced out of their neighborhoods, who are spending half their income on rent, who have given up on ever owning a home — they needed a president to sign their bill. They got a president who called it a yawn and went back to the marble samples.
The bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support — a vote of 358-32 in the House and 85-5 in the Senate. Those margins exist because members of both parties heard from their constituents. They heard from the families who can’t buy a starter home. They heard from the young people who moved back in with their parents. They heard from the renters who got priced out of the neighborhoods where they grew up. They responded.
The president did not respond. The president went shopping for marble. The president called their bill a yawn. The president let the Constitution do what he refused to do.
The bill is law. That is good. The man who would not sign it is still president. That is the problem.