Just over a month in to his second presidential term, President Donald Trump capped his remarkable return by delivering a high-profile address to a joint session of Congress.
As is typical for most such addresses — not technically a State of the Union address in this case — housing was not a core focus of the speech, despite some recent and consequential housing moves made by the administration since January.
Ahead of the speech, commentators speculated about the president’s likely remarks about immigration and the broader economy. In the early going, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) shouted at the president that he did not have a mandate to cut medicaid. After a second outburst, Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) directed the sergeant at arms to expel Green from the House chamber.
The beginning of the speech focused largely on social issues championed by conservatives, including transgender issues and ending “wokeness” in the federal government.
Despite Trump issuing a day-one executive order for emergency price relief and with the potential for rising costs on the minds of Americans everywhere, housing only managed to earn a brief moment during the speech. After focusing first on the cost of goods and energy, he made his only mention of mortgage rates, vowing to lower them to “put more money in the pockets of American families.”
Interest rates took “a big beautiful drop,” Trump said, before deviating back to immigration for several minutes. He later detailed more economic policy, including a proposal to make interest payments on American cars tax deductible, and outlining his reasoning behind issuing reciprocal tariffs.
The president said that other nations have imposed tariffs on the U.S. for so long that “now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries,” adding that tariffs are important to the “soul of the country” while conceding they would lead to “a little disturbance, but we’re okay with that.” He then returned to the topics of border security and criminal punishment.
The president’s speech went well over 90 minutes, but housing wasn’t on the agenda. Trump spent considerable time outlining specific DOGE cuts and the need for less regulation.
