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Former President Donald Trump has once again directed sharp criticism at Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, accusing him of being the main culprit behind the continued weakness in the U.S. housing market. In a late-night post on Truth Social, Trump argued that Powell’s policies have made mortgages unaffordable and are undermining an already fragile real estate sector.
Trump wrote:
"Can someone please inform Jerome 'Too Late' Powell that he is severely undermining the housing industry? People cannot get mortgages because of him. There is no inflation, and all signs indicate that a significant rate cut is needed. 'Too Late' is a disaster!"
The remarks come as housing market data paints a complicated picture — with certain areas showing resilience, but overall affordability and confidence continuing to erode.
Builder Confidence at Two-Year Low
According to the latest data, U.S. housing starts rose 5.2% in the last month to an annual rate of 1.43 million units, the highest level in five months. However, most of the growth came from multi-family housing, while the single-family sector remains sluggish.
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Confidence Index fell to 32 in August, its lowest reading since December 2022. Economists had expected a modest improvement to 34, underscoring the sector’s ongoing challenges.
NAHB Chairman Buddy Hughes noted that affordability is the central issue: “Buyers are waiting for mortgage rates to drop before they are ready to make a decision.” He added that the industry is also grappling with restrictive land regulations and complex administrative hurdles.
More than one-third of contractors have resorted to lowering prices, with average discounts around 5%. In addition, 66% of builders are offering incentives or promotions, the highest share since the pandemic. Yet buyer traffic remains weak, with many households postponing purchases due to still-elevated borrowing costs.
Regional Breakdown
Northeast: Builder confidence fell to its lowest point since January 2023.
South & Midwest: Confidence remained largely flat.
West: Slight improvement, though not enough to signal recovery.
Mortgage Rates Easing, But Not Enough
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropped to 6.58% last week, its lowest since October 2023, and nearly half a percentage point lower since the start of the year. Still, the decline has not been sufficient to stimulate demand, as many buyers remain on the sidelines.
Robert Dietz, chief economist of NAHB, argued that the Fed needs to act: “With the weakening real estate market and various other economic data, the Fed should soon return to a rate-cutting cycle. This will reduce financial costs for housing construction and indirectly pull mortgage rates down.”
For now, Powell has resisted calls for aggressive easing, maintaining a cautious stance even as pressure mounts from both political figures and industry stakeholders.
Outlook: Bleak Data Ahead
The U.S. Census Bureau is set to release new housing starts and building permits data for July later this week. Analysts expect weak numbers, following June’s drop in single-family starts to an 11-month low and building permits falling to a two-year low.
If Powell delays rate cuts further, economists warn that the slowdown could deepen, putting additional strain on contractors, buyers, and the broader U.S. economy.
Conclusion
The clash between Trump and Powell underscores the growing political and economic tension surrounding U.S. monetary policy. While Trump insists that aggressive rate cuts are urgently needed, the Fed remains cautious, balancing concerns over inflation with pressure to support the struggling housing market. For now, signs suggest that recovery in the real estate sector remains fragile, with affordability and builder sentiment at their weakest levels in nearly two years.
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According to Cointelegraph, a core Ethereum developer, Zak Cole, recently experienced a significant security breach when his cryptocurrency wallet was compromised by a rogue code assistant. This incident highlights the increasing sophistication of scams targeting even experienced developers in the cryptocurrency space.Cole revealed in a post on X that he was targeted by a malicious artificial intelligence extension from Cursor AI. This extension, which appeared legitimate with a professional icon and over 54,000 downloads, was installed by Cole under the name “contractshark.solidity-lang.” Unbeknownst to him, the plugin exfiltrated his private key by reading his .env file and sending the information to an attacker’s server. This breach allowed the attacker to access Cole's hot wallet for three days, culminating in the draining of funds on August 10, 2025.Despite the breach, Cole noted that his financial loss was limited to a few hundred dollars in Ether (ETH) due to his practice of using small, project-segregated hot wallets for testing purposes. He emphasized that his primary holdings remain secure on hardware devices. Cole's experience underscores the growing threat posed by wallet drainers, which are malware designed to steal digital assets from unsuspecting users.The threat of wallet drainers is not new. In September 2024, a similar incident occurred when a wallet drainer disguised as the WalletConnect Protocol managed to steal over $70,000 worth of digital assets from investors. This malicious app had been available on the Google Play store for over five months before being discovered. Fake reviews on the app mentioned features unrelated to cryptocurrency, further misleading users.Hakan Unal, senior security operations lead at blockchain security firm Cyvers, warns that malicious VS Code and extensions are becoming a major attack vector for crypto developers. These attacks often involve fake publishers and typosquatting to steal private keys. Unal advises developers to thoroughly vet extensions, avoid storing secrets in plain text or .env files, use hardware wallets, and develop in isolated environments to mitigate these risks.The accessibility of crypto drainers is also a concern, as they are increasingly available to scammers. A report from April 2022 by crypto forensics and compliance firm AMLBot revealed that these drainers are being sold as a software-as-a-service model, allowing scammers to rent the software for as little as $100 USDT. This development poses a significant challenge to the security of digital assets in the cryptocurrency industry.