Trump cancels – President Donald Trump called off the signing event for the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act on Wednesday morning—only for Rep. French Hill to publicly praise the bill at a press conference moments after Trump’s cancellation post went up.
Wednesday morning was supposed to be a victory lap for a bipartisan housing push. Instead, it turned into an awkward rewind.
President Donald Trump used Truth Social to announce that his signing event for the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act had been canceled. The bill is designed to lower housing costs by increasing housing supply and restricting corporate investors’ ability to buy single-family homes.
In the same post, Trump said he was effectively holding the bill “hostage” until the SAVE America Act was passed. He framed the pause as urgent. calling it “a National Emergency.” In his words on the platform. “Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT. which I consider to be a National Emergency. Thank you for your attention to this matter!. President DJT.”.
That message didn’t reach Rep. French Hill (R-AR) quickly enough—or at least, not in time for the remarks he was making live. Not long after Trump’s post went public, Hill was at a press conference when he praised the bill’s progress and Congress’s work in getting it to the president’s desk.
Hill said he was “proud” of what lawmakers had done. He called the housing issue “a legitimate issue. ” and he described his own role with Tim Scott in shaping the bill to satisfy the president’s concerns. Hill said. “Tim Scott and I found a way to put that into law that. in our view. meets the president’s test. but absolutely will not reduce capital flowing into housing. which has been my top goal.”.
He then tied the bill directly to affordability outcomes, saying the goal was to “Lower the cost of housing, make it more affordable, more accessible, encourage the banks to lend more that have been shut down since the global financial crisis in 2008, and this bill does that.”
Hill also sounded confident that the legislative back-and-forth had paid off, pointing to House and Senate negotiations. “For those of you who cover this every day. you know the back-and-forth between the House and Senate. but it’s successful today. ” he said. adding that he was proud of the work that got members “to ‘yes.’”.
The timing made the contradiction hard to miss: Trump’s cancellation came moments before Hill’s public celebration—one signaling the signing would not happen, the other treating it like it already had.
By the end of the day’s opening stretch, the clash on the same subject boiled down to one question: whether the housing bill’s fate was separate from— or tied directly to—whether the SAVE America Act could clear Congress.
Trump Truth Social 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act SAVE America Act French Hill Tim Scott housing policy corporate investors single-family homes Congress signing event MISRYOUM Politics News