Donald Trump could really use some kind of win right about now. The president is woefully unpopular, the war he started in Iran isn’t exactly going according to plan, and polls show the public is souring on the Republican’s handling of practically every issue and on his priorities generally. Nailing down a victory on an important issue ahead of the midterm elections would do Trump and his party a world of good.

All he has to do is take advantage of an opportunity that he appears to care nothing about.

The Senate last month did something it hasn’t done in a long while: It advanced bipartisan legislation on a key national priority. In an 89-10 vote, the chamber approved the largest piece of housing legislation in a generation, which was co-authored by the top two members of the Senate Banking Committee, Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Overhauling federal housing policy is tricky (there’s a reason Congress hasn’t passed major housing legislation in more than three decades), but there’s plenty to like in the package, called the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. As a New York Times report summarized, the package would “streamline production, modernize federal programs, improve financing options, ease regulations and set limits on large institutional investors,” all as part of an effort to drive down housing costs by boosting supply.

Instead of scrambling to help the bill through the House, the president reportedly told GOP leaders to disregard housing policy and instead to focus on the so-called SAVE America Act, which would make it harder for Americans to register to vote and cast ballots and, more critically, lacks the 60 votes it needs to advance in the Senate.

Speaker Mike Johnson told House Republican leaders and committee chairs at their annual retreat last month that the president told him that “no one gives a (bleep) about housing.”

Trump expressed a similar sentiment to the Washington Examiner this week. From the report:

President Donald Trump downplayed the bipartisan housing legislation that many congressional allies hope will ease the affordability worries plaguing voters, saying instead in an exclusive Washington Examiner interview that housing is ‘all about interest rates.’

He added that “we have other things we’re pushing that are bigger, and right now, more important.”

First of all, if Trump genuinely believes that housing policy is “all about interest rates,” I have some bad news for him. Although rates steadily declined over the last year, they jumped after he launched his war in Iran.

What’s more, one need not be an expert in housing policy to understand that interest rates are not the only relevant element to a systemic problem. It’s why senators began working on a comprehensive solution in the first place.

But let’s not brush past a key element of that quote to the Examiner. To hear the president tell it, he’s pushing “more important” legislation than the bipartisan deal on housing. In other words, Trump is pushing voting restrictions that can’t pass, instead of a housing bill that could pass if he made a little effort.

In her latest piece for The Bulwark, MS NOW’s Catherine Rampell asked, “I’m not saying Donald Trump is trying to lose the midterms. But if he were, would he really be doing anything differently?”

Under the circumstances, it’s hardly an unreasonable question.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

The post Trump downplays bipartisan housing bill, shrugging at key opportunity on economy appeared first on MS NOW.

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