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By ALEX VEIGA, Associated Press President Donald Trump’s plans for bringing homeownership within reach of more Americans involve pushing for lower interest rates on home loans and credit cards, and banning large institutional investors from buying single-family homes. In his address Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump outlined four policies his administration is pursuing in a bid to make homeownership more affordable. Each had been previously mentioned by him or his administration in recent weeks, part of a broader push to address affordability generally, a hot-button issue with voters heading into the midterms. The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. The combination of higher mortgage rates, years of skyrocketing home prices and a chronic shortage of homes nationally following more than a decade of below-average home construction have left many aspiring homeowners priced out of the market. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes remained stuck last year at 30-year lows. President Donald Trump points during the 56th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP) In his remarks, Trump stressed the need to lower interest rates on home loans and credit cards in order to give aspiring homebuyers more financial flexibility to save up for a down payment on a home and more purchasing power when it comes time to buy. “We can drop interest rates to a level, and that’s one thing we do want to do,” said Trump. “That’s natural. That’s good for everybody. You know, the dropping of the interest rate, we should be paying a much lower interest than we are.” Trump noted that he has directed the federal government to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds, a move he said would help reduce mortgage rates. Trump said earlier this month that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have $200 billion in cash that would be used to buy mortgage bonds. However, some economists have said such a move would likely have only a minimal impact on mortgage rates. Trump, who spent much of last year demanding that the Federal Reserve lower interest rates, also reiterated that he will be announcing a new Fed chair soon to replace Jerome Powell, whose term as chair is due to end in May. “I think they’ll do a very good job,” he said. Related Articles IOC president says no contact yet with Trump’s White House, will meet Vance at Winter Olympics Lawmakers can sue to ensure release of Epstein files, but not as part of Maxwell case, judge says Trump administration drops legal appeal over anti-DEI funding threat to schools and colleges Supreme Court seems inclined to keep Lisa Cook on Fed board despite Trump attempt to fire her After Minneapolis, Democrats confront political vulnerabilities as they battle Trump on immigration Still, Fed rate cuts don’t always translate into lower mortgage rates. That’s what happened in the fall of 2024 after the central bank cut its main rate for the first time in more than four years. Instead of falling, mortgage rates marched higher, eventually cresting above 7% in January this year. At that time, the 10-year Treasury yield was climbing toward 5%. More recently, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage was at 6.06% last week, its lowest level in more than three years, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. While lower mortgage rates help boost homebuyers’ purchasing power, the biggest hurdle many aspiring homeowners face is being able to save up for a down payment. To that end, Trump said he is asking Congress for legislation that would mandate credit card issuers cap interest rates at 10% for one year — after the industry ignored his demand earlier this month that they implement the cap by Jan. 20. The average rate on credit cards is around 21%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Trump also reiterated that he wants to block large…

By HILLEL ITALIE, Associated Press National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Novels by Nobel laureate Han Kang and Angela Flournoy and a memoir by Arundhati Roy are among the finalists for National Book Critics Circle awards. Related Articles Dear Abby: Husband controls who I talk to — I’m done Channing Tatum to bring his dancing, ab-heavy ‘Magic Mike Live’ to New York City The Sundance Film Festival prepares to bid farewell to Park City, and Robert Redford Lili Taylor, Keith McNally and Andrew Ross Sorkin are among Gotham Book Prize finalists Behind Brooklyn Beckham’s claims about wife’s wedding dress drama with mom The critics association announced nominees in eight competitive categories and three honorary winners, including the celebrated author-journalist Frances Fitzgerald, who will receive a lifetime achievement award. “Out of the many hundreds of titles that our organization carefully considered this year, these singular and striking finalists rose to the top,” NBCC President Adam Dalva said in a statement Tuesday. “They interrogate the lives we lead, broaden our creative and social horizons, move us, and continually surprise us. Especially in this difficult time, every one of these writers and translators deserves to be celebrated -– and to be widely read.” Han’s “We Do Not Part” (translated from the Korean by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris) is a fiction finalist, along with Karen Russell’s “The Antidote”; Katie Kitamura’s “Audition”; Solvej Balle’s “On the Calculation of Volume (Book III),” translated from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell; and Flournoy’s “The Wilderness.” Roy is a nominee in autobiography for “Mother Mary Comes to Me,” with other books cited including Geraldine Brooks’ “Memorial Days”; Beth Macy’s “Paper Girl”; Hanif Kureishi’s “Shattered”; and Miriam Toews’ “A Truce That Is Not Peace.” FILE – Writer and activist Arundhati Roy participates in a protest at the press club of India in New Delhi, India, Oct. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File) Finalists in other categories range from Viet Thanh Nguyen’s “To Save and to Destroy” for criticism to Nicholas Boggs’ “Baldwin: A Love Story” for best first book to Kevin Young’s “Night Watch” for poetry. Winners will be announced March 26.

All the strategic and geopolitical rationales Trump is citing are not actual reasons for acquiring Greenland; they’re excuses meant to justify a policy he wants for different reasons.

The tan-colored prints were made by blowing pigment over hands placed against the cave walls.