Trump touts affordability push in Detroit speech. Why Wall Street should worry.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The White House is having its “break-the-glass" moment on affordability ahead of the November midterm elections. It has Wall Street in its sights.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump gave a speech on the economy in Detroit, touting his administration’s record so far. Among the goals was to highlight what the White House is doing to bring down prices. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, has been lower than economists predicted for the past couple of months.

But Americans burned by the rapidly rising prices of the last several years have said in recent polls they don’t believe Trump is doing enough to bring prices down. The affordability push has created new risks for major banks and investors, who until now have benefited greatly from tax cuts, deregulation and other moves the White House made in 2025. During the Detroit speech, Trump touted his promise to ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes.

Trump also repeated that he would cap credit card interest rates at 10% for one year, a move that immediately caused bank stocks to tank when the president announced it. His Justice Department, meanwhile, is investigating Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, a move that is widely seen as part of an longstanding attempt to pressure him to lower interest rates. That effort could spook the bond market by raising questions about the Fed’s independence.

Trump said on Tuesday he will announce other plans to lower costs in coming days. That includes initiatives to reduce healthcare costs and to make housing cheaper. “In the coming weeks I will be laying out even more plans to help bring back affordability.