Report: Trump insiders’ fury as he backs 50-year mortgage plan

Donald Trump’s housing tsar has sparked panic in the White House after convincing the president to back a ‘moronic’ 50-year mortgage plan following an impromptu presentation at his golf club in Palm Beach. Bill Pulte arrived at Trump International Golf Club carrying what one onlooker described as a school-project-style display titled ‘Great American Presidents.’ At its center was a photo of Franklin D. Roosevelt labeled ’30-year mortgage’, besides a picture of Donald Trump with ’50-year mortgage’ scrawled underneath.

About ten minutes later, Trump shared a photo of the board on Truth Social, instantly setting off a storm of angry calls to aides from supporters and housing market watchers warning the it could drive up costs in an already unaffordable market. ‘He just sold POTUS a bill of goods that wasn’t necessarily accurate,’ a person who was with the president told Politico . ‘He said ‘FDR did it, you can do it, it’s gonna be a big thing.’ But he didn’t tell him about all the unintended consequences.’

Economists slammed the idea as a ‘band-aid solution’ that would only make homes less affordable over time. Critics inside the administration said the backlash to the scheme was among the fiercest of Trump’s second term. One ferocious insider said: ‘The thing that became clear from this latest episode – if it wasn’t already clear – is that Bill Pulte doesn’t know the first [expletive] thing about how the mortgage markets operate. After publicly humiliating the president with his moronic 50 year mortgage plan it’s safe to assume that his days are numbered.’ A 50-year mortgage might sound like a fix for housing ‘affordability’ by shrinking monthly payments.

But stretching loans that long means homeowners build equity at a glacial pace, with the majority of each payment going toward interest rather than the property itself. Instead of easing the crisis, it would saddle buyers with lifelong debt and flood an overheated market with more demand, pushing prices even higher. ‘It would lead to buyers building equity in their homes more slowly,’ said Gennadiy Goldberg, head of US rates strategy at TD Securities. ‘At the beginning of a mortgage, more of those payments tend to be interest.’

One person who witnessed Pulte’s presentation said: ‘Anything that goes before POTUS needs to be vetted. And a lot of times with Pulte they’re not. He just goes straight up to POTUS.’ Trump downplayed the controversy in a Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham on Monday, insisting the concept was ‘not a big deal.’ ‘All it means is you pay less per month,’ he said. ‘Pay it over a longer period of time. It’s not like a big factor. It might help a little bit.’

Prominent conservatives, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, influencer Laura Loomer, and Mike Cernovich, ripped the proposal online. ‘It will ultimately reward the banks, mortgage lenders, and home builders while people pay far more in interest over time and die before they ever pay off their home,’ Greene wrote on X. ‘In debt forever, in debt for life!’ Loomer added: ‘You know what’s better than a 50-year mortgage? Mass deporting 65 million illegal aliens.’

Pulte later defended his plan, saying the extended mortgage term was just one piece of the Trump administration’s broader push to expand homeownership opportunities. The White House issued a statement saying Trump remains ‘committed to making it easier and more affordable to achieve the American Dream of homeownership by eliminating unnecessary red tape, increasing supply, and lowering costs.’