Trump undercuts GOP midterms message with snub of housing bill

A sweeping housing bill became law on Saturday without Donald Trump’s signature, or any White House fanfare, after the president soured on a package of dozens of affordability provisions that he derided as “a yawn.”

Trump’s scuttled support and the dead-of-night enactment are setbacks for his allies on Capitol Hill, who’d been looking to cast the law as a major bipartisan win on an issue voters are prioritizing heading into midterm elections. 

The president’s turnabout also serves as a reminder of how quickly he can swerve on policy matters — even on a law that features provisions he and his own advisers negotiated. As recently as June, Trump hailed the package as “the most comprehensive and consequential housing legislation in the history of our country.”

The 21st Century Road to Housing Act will curb large institutional investors’ ownership of single-family homes, streamline rules around factory-built housing and encourage localities to remove barriers to construction in an attempt to bring more supply to the market.

Lawmakers had initially planned a splashy, camera-friendly signing in the Capitol for Trump in June of a package they’d spent months jockeying over. Trump then scrapped the ceremony at the last minute, saying the housing package “pales in comparison” to a voter-ID law he has championed. Trump on Friday again linked the bills: “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 wrote on social media hours before the bill was set to become........

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