Donald Trump just told Congress that legislation to accelerate homebuilding was of "minor importance." The signal was blunt: he would not sign the bipartisan housing bill unless lawmakers also passed measures limiting mail-in voting and requiring proof of citizenship. For the first time in 30 years, Congress had moved together on housing. Trump moved it to the back burner.
The timing stings his own supporters hardest. Home prices have climbed to five times the typical family's annual income. Monthly ownership costs hit record highs. The country needs millions of new homes, yet builders are pulling back. New housing supply fell 14% in May compared to the same month last year. Moody's Analytics forecasts residential investment will contract every year through 2030.
The housing squeeze is just one wound Trump has opened on his base. Nearly two years into his second term, a pattern has emerged: almost every policy thrust inflicts fresh damage on the constituencies that elected him.
Take energy costs. Trump's decision to escalate tensions with Iran led Tehran to close the Strait of Hormuz, driving oil prices higher. Gas prices have spiked as a result. Trump had won the presidency partly on a pledge to crush inflation. That inflation promise is now dead.
Meanwhile, his cuts to renewable energy subsidies and opposition to wind farm investment are pushing up power costs even as artificial intelligence datacenters demand more electricity. His "One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025" accelerated those subsidy reductions. By June, economists calculated that higher energy bills had already wiped out the tax refunds his plan was supposed to deliver.
Healthcare premiums have jumped too. The abrupt end of Affordable Care Act subsidies triggered a 58% average increase in premiums. Enrollment is expected to drop by five to six million people this year. Add in cuts to food assistance and Medicaid, and the poorest Americans face a squeeze from multiple angles.
Farmers thought they had a friend in Trump. He won 433 of the nation's 444 farming-dependent counties in 2024. Yet his trade war with China wiped out $17 billion in farm exports to Asia last year. Hostility toward Canada cost another $1 billion in northern exports. The White House distributed $12 billion in December to offset what it called "unfair market disruptions." But then Trump closed the Strait of Hormuz, drastically raising fertilizer costs. His immigration raids targeted the workers farmers depend on for harvests.
Male workers have been particularly hammered. Immigration crackdowns hit immigrant laborers directly but also reduced employment for native men who typically supervise those crews. Manufacturing job losses continue despite Trump's protectionist promises. Studies from his first term showed tariffs actually reduced factory jobs by raising costs for domestic manufacturers buying industrial inputs and machinery, eroding their competitiveness. Other countries retaliated by closing markets to American goods.
Male employment has fallen by more than 1.5 million since Trump took office. Female employment has risen by nearly half a million.
The deepest danger may lie ahead. Nine of the ten states most dependent on trade with Mexico and Canada voted for Trump in 2024. If he follows through on threats to scrap the North American trade pact, retaliatory tariffs would fall hardest on his own supporters in those states.
Trump's footsoldiers are right to be nervous. With little to show for his economic policies, his ambition to leave a mark seems only to have intensified. He appears willing to inflict fresh damage to prove his power over Washington, its landscape, and America's economic relationships.
Author James Rodriguez: "Trump ran as a populist for working people, but his actual record reads like he's conducting an experiment in how far blind loyalty can stretch before it snaps."
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