Trump orders ‘my representatives’ to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds to lower rates
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/08/business/mortgage-bonds-trump-purchase-rates?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit&utm_source=reddit
Posted by cnn
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President Donald Trump said Thursday he had [ordered “my representatives” in the government to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds](https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/08/business/mortgage-bonds-trump-purchase-rates?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit) to drive down interest rates and monthly payments, writing in a Truth Social post.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-owned mortgage giants, are now worth “an absolute fortune” and have enough cash to fund the directive, he wrote in the post.
“Because I chose not to sell Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in my First Term… it is now worth many times that amount — AN ABSOLUTE FORTUNE — and has $200 BILLION DOLLARS IN CASH. Because of this, I am instructing my Representatives to BUY $200 BILLION DOLLARS IN MORTGAGE BONDS,” he wrote.
“This will drive Mortgage Rates DOWN, monthly payments DOWN, and make the cost of owning a home more affordable.”
Traditionally, the Federal Reserve has been the largest buyer of mortgage-backed securities. During the pandemic, the central bank bought hundreds billion of dollars worth of the securities, which helped contribute to the ultra-low mortgage rates many Americans were able to lock in during those years.
Generally, when the Fed or another entity purchases more mortgage-backed securities, namely mortgage bonds, it lowers the interest rates charged on mortgages.
Trump has been weighing an IPO of Fannie and Freddie for years, including in his first term. CNN [reported](https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/08/business/fannie-freddie-ipo) in August that Trump and his economic advisors are planning a sale of stock of the two entities.
*This is a developing story.*
The total US residential real estate market is $55 trillion.
I have no idea what he’s trying to do, but it’s impossible to move the needle in the national real-estate market with only $200 billion. That is less than a half of a percent of the total market.
The really important matter here is the grade of the bonds they’d purchase. He means purchasing subprime loans in the tranches collected in the bonds – so relatively low grade bonds.
He has inside information about how bad the situation really is. He’s offloading the losses to the taxpayers so that when the economy contracts, his buddies & donors get their garbage loans off of their books for a premium price – while the largest mortgage providers in the country are financially imperiled instead.
Sounds good…..but that’s not really how it works. $200B is small compared to the overall mortgage market, and when rates actually moved in the past it took *trillions* in Fed buying. Also, a president can’t just order this into existence…..And if markets see it as inflationary, rates could even go up, not down.
Can’t find 5 bucks for snap, or to help a homeless person, or anyone poor in need but they can raise millions, billions, trillions for what they need whenever they need it. WTF?
lol the cnn official account positing this garbage article like we care. The premise for this article is meaningless garbage, just like every other thing dictator tots tweets. Somehow I feel like we need to dig deeper and see if the infinitesimally insignificant impact he hopes to have on the bond market is related to his personal real estate dealings. Hmmm. But no research there right CNN? Just an article based on a garbage tweet.
Stop posting the obvious bullshit that comes out of his mouth as actual news or policy. It’s the ramblings of a mentally unstable speed addict
Why not go ahead and just offer below market FHA loans while we’re at it? Fannie and Freddie could just start shelling out 3% mortgages and eat the losses until both companies are completely insolvent again. The modern GOP is a truly pathetic entity with no new ideas and a memory so short that they think they have found something new if the concept is over 20 years old. We’re not even trying to be a market based economy at this point.
Hahahaha…..here’s the other side of his “affordable housing” bullshit yesterday.
Always works out to help the 1% out of the quagmire that they created.
Would lowering the rate this way even help people? Aren’t companies, investors, private equity firms, etc. into buying more single family homes? They got pockets to beat out the new grad or frugal long term renter
I assume there’s a reason Freddie and Fannie would hold cash. Is this it? Or is this risking something bad in the future that they won’t be able to cover? I am asking because I don’t know. It does seem weird they’d hold onto that amount of cash then dump it all on the president’s say so, but I could be projecting my distrust of the current administration.