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President Trump kept his focus on a potential ban on institutional homebuyers and highlighted existing plans to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds to drive down rates.

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President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he has a plan to drive down mortgage rates, just days after his unrelated comments may have nudged those rates in the other direction.

Trump took center stage at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, where, among other things, he shared his views on mortgage rates, the U.S. housing market and his plans to nominate a new chair of the Federal Reserve.

Trump’s comments on housing were highly anticipated, but in recent days have taken a back seat to the drama he stirred up over his outspoken desire to take over Greenland from Denmark. His comments are widely believed to have driven mortgage rates up from their three-year lows in recent days.

Rates fell to three-year lows of around 6 percent after Trump announced his order for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy mortgage bonds earlier this month.

President Donald Trump gestures as he delivers a special address during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on Jan. 21, 2026. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images)

“I’ve instructed government-backed institutions to purchase up to $200 billion in mortgage bonds to bring down interest rates,” Trump said on Wednesday, reiterating his earlier announcement.

However, on Tuesday, rates had jumped back up to 6.21 percent.

In pursuit of his stated goal of housing affordability, Trump also said Wednesday that he was going to be “very protective of people that already own a house.”

“Because we have had such a good run, the house values have gone up tremendously. And these people have become wealthy. They weren’t wealthy. They become wealthy because of their house,” Trump said.

His comments highlighted a quagmire that exists in the U.S. housing market: How can policymakers provide housing affordability to new buyers without impacting the net worths of existing homeowners?

Trump said that making houses more affordable would contribute to “hurting the value of those houses, obviously, because the one thing works in tandem with the other.”

“I don’t want to do anything that’s going to hurt the value of people that own a house who, for the first time in their lives, are walking around the streets of whatever city they’re in, very proud that their house is worth $500[,000], $600[,000], $700,000,” he said.

“Now, if I want to really crush the housing market, I could do that so fast that people could buy houses. But you would destroy a lot of people that already have houses.”

Institutional investors

During his speech, Trump again took aim at institutional investors buying single-family homes.

“But homes are built for people, not for corporations,” Trump said in Davos. “America will not become a nation of renters. We’re not going to do that.”

On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order giving more scrutiny to firms buying single-family homes. The order seeks to allow individuals to buy foreclosed properties before investors, Reuters reported.

“In recent years, Wall Street giants and institutional investment firms, many of you are here, many of you are good friends of mine, many of you are supporters,” Trump said Wednesday. “I’m sorry to do this. I’m so sorry. But you’ve driven up housing prices by purchasing hundreds of thousands of single-family homes, and it’s been a great investment for them, often as much as 10 percent of houses on the market.”

In his speech, Trump called on Congress to formally pass a ban on institutional investors buying single-family homes.

New Fed chair

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell

Trump also continued to foreshadow his forthcoming nomination of a new chair of the Federal Reserve Board. Current Chairman Jerome Powell’s term ends in May, and Trump said he had been interviewing replacements.

“Everyone that I interviewed is great. Everyone could do, I think, a fantastic job. Problem is, they change once they get the job. You know, they’re saying everything I want to hear. And then they get the job. They’re locked in for six years. They get the job. And all of a sudden, let’s raise rates a little bit.”

Trump, who nominated Powell for the position in 2017, kept his focus on the Fed chairman during his speech on Wednesday.

“We have a terrible chairman right now. Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell. He’s always too late. And it’s very late with interest rates, except before the election,” Trump said. “He was just fine for the other side. So we’re going to have somebody that’s great, and we hope he does the right job.”

Notably absent from his speech on Wednesday were details about a recent plan to allow homebuyers to tap into their retirement accounts to buy a house without incurring a penalty.

Trump had said in a post on his Truth Social platform earlier this month that he would discuss specifics during his speech at Davos.

Email Taylor Anderson

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