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President Donald Trump wants to keep home prices high, bypassing calls to ramp up construction so people can afford what has been a ticket to the middle class.Trump has instead argued for protecting existing owners who have watched the values of their homes climb. It’s a position that flies in the face of what many economists, the real estate industry, local officials and apartment dwellers say is needed to fix a big chunk of America’s affordability problem.“I don’t want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up for people that own their homes, and they can be assured that’s what’s going to happen,” Trump told his Cabinet on Jan. 29.That approach could bolster the Republican president’s standing with older voters, a group that over time has been more likely to vote in midterm elections. Those races in November will determine whether Trump’s party can retain control of the House and Senate.“You have a lot of people that have become wealthy in the last year because their house value has gone up,” Trump said. “And you know, when you get the housing when you make it too easy and too cheap to buy houses those values come down.”But by catering to older baby boomers on housing, Trump risks alienating the younger voters who expanded his coalition in 2024 and helped him win a second term, and he could wade into a “generational war” in the midterms, said Brent Buchanan, whose polling firm Cygnal advises Republicans.“The under-40 group is the most important right now they are the ones who put Trump in the White House,” Buchanan said. “Their desire to show up in an election or not is going to make the difference in this election. If they feel that Donald Trump is taking care of the boomers at their expense, that is going to hurt Republicans.” The logic in appealing to older voters In the 2024 presidential election, 81% of Trump’s voters were homeowners, according to AP VoteCast data. This means many of his supporters already have mortgages with low rates or own their homes outright, possibly blunting the importance of housing as an issue.Older voters tend to show up to vote more than do younger people, said Oscar Pocasangre, a senior data analyst at liberal think tank New America who has studied the age divide in U.S. politics. “However, appealing to older voters may prove to be a misguided policy if what’s needed to win is to expand the voting base,” Pocasangre said.Before the 2026 elections, voters have consistently rated affordability as a top concern, and that is especially true for younger voters with regard to housing.Booker Lightman, 30, a software engineer in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, who identifies politically as a libertarian Republican, said the shortage of housing has been a leading problem in his state.Lightman just closed on a home last month, and while he and his wife, Alice, were able to manage the cost, he said that the lack of construction is pushing people out of Colorado. “There’s just not enough housing supply,” he said.Shay Hata, a real estate agent in the Chicago and Denver areas, said she handles about 100 to 150 transactions a year. But she sees the potential for a lot more. “We have a lack of inventory to the point where most properties, particularly in the suburbs, are getting between five and 20 offers,” she said, describing what she sees in the Chicago area.New construction could help more people afford homes because in some cases, buyers qualify for discounted mortgage rates from the builders’ preferred lenders, Hata said. She called the current situation “very discouraging for buyers because they’re getting priced out of the market.”But pending construction has fallen under Trump. Permits to build single-family homes have plunged 9.4% over the past 12 months in October, the most recent month available, to an annual rate of 876,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Trump’s other ideas to help people buy houses Trump has not always been against increasing housing supply.During the 2024 campaign, Trump’s team said he would create tax breaks for homebuyers, trim regulations on construction, open up federal land for housing developments and make monthly payments more manageable by cutting mortgage rates. Advisers also claimed that housing stock would open up because of Trump’s push for mass deportations of people who were in the United States illegally.As recently as October, Trump urged builders to ramp up construction. “They’re sitting on 2 Million empty lots, A RECORD. I’m asking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to get Big Homebuilders going and, by so doing, help restore the American Dream!” Trump posted on social media, referring to the government-backed lenders.But more recently, he has been unequivocal on not wanting to pursue policies that would boost supply and lower prices.In office, Trump has so far focused his housing policy on lobbying the Federal Reserve to cut its benchmark interest rates. He believes that would make mortgages more affordable, although critics say it could spur higher inflation. Trump announced that the two mortgage companies, which are under government conservatorship, would buy at least $200 billion in home loan securities in a bid to reduce rates.Trump also wants Congress to ban large financial institutions from buying homes. But he has rejected suggestions for expanding rules to let buyers use 401(k) retirement accounts for down payments, telling reporters that he did not want people to take their money out of the stock market because it was doing so well.There are signs that lawmakers in both parties see the benefits of taking steps to add houses before this year’s elections. There are efforts in the Senate and House to jump-start construction through the use of incentives to change zoning restrictions, among other policies.One of the underlying challenges on affordability is that home prices have been generally rising faster than incomes for several years.This makes it harder to save for down payments or upgrade to a nicer home. It also means that the places where people live increasingly double as their key financial asset, one that leaves many families looking moneyed on paper even if they are struggling with monthly bills.There is another risk for Trump. If the economy grows this year, as he has promised, that could push up demand for houses as well as their prices making the affordability problem more pronounced, said Edward Pinto, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank.Pinto said construction of single-family homes would have to rise by 50% to 100% during the next three years for average home price gains to be flat a sign, he said, that Trump’s fears about falling home prices were probably unwarranted.“It’s very hard to crater home prices,” Pinto said. Josh Boak, Associated Press
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If you were up late celebrating the Seattle Seahawks’ win at the Super Bowl last night, you may need help from caffeine to get you through your busy Monday routine. You’re in luck. Today (Monday, February 9), Starbucks Rewards members can get a free tall (12-ounce) coffee with the purchase of another beverage. Find out what you need to do to score your free cup of Joe from Starbucks. Starbucks has added its brand-new 1971 Roast to the menu Starbuckss hometown team, the Seattle Seahawks, won the big game last night, but thats not the only win that the coffee chain is celebrating. On Monday, February 9, Starbucks is officially introducing its brand-new coffee blend, 1971 Roast, to the world. The name is tied to its history. The coffee company first opened its doors at Seattles Pike Place Market in 1971. The dark-roast blend features coffees from Colombia, Sumatra, and Brazil. It includes notes of toasted sugar and rich walnut. Starbucks is also welcoming the following globally inspired pastries to its menu today: Dubai Chocolate Bite Cookie Croissant Swirl Berry Blondie Strawberry Matcha Loaf Chocolate Pistachio Loaf Yuzu Citrus Blossom In celebration of the new 1971 Roast, Today, Starbucks Rewards members can get a free 12-ounce iced or brewed coffee with the purchase of another drink. If youre headed into the office this morning, this deal is a perfect excuse to grab a coffee for you and a coworker. Heres how to get a free cup of coffee at Starbucks If youre a Starbucks Rewards member, youll find a free coffee coupon in the Starbucks app. You can claim your free 12-ounce coffee with the purchase of another drink at the register, drive-thru, or by ordering ahead through the app. Heres how to redeem your freebie: At the drive-thru or register, order a beverage, and ask them to add a free tall coffee. When scanning your Starbucks Rewards account at checkout, the coupon will be applied. When ordering ahead in the app, add both beverages to your cart and apply the coupon to redeem your free 12-ounce coffee. Visit StarbucksMonday.com for the full details about this promotion.
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A leading U.S. health official on Sunday urged people to get inoculated against the measles at a time of outbreaks across several states and as the United States is at risk of losing its measles elimination status.“Take the vaccine, please,” said Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator whose boss has raised suspicion about the safety and importance of vaccines. “We have a solution for our problem.”Oz, a heart surgeon, defended some recently revised federal vaccine recommendations as well as past comments from President Donald Trump and the nation’s health chief, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., about the efficacy of vaccines. From Oz, there was a clear message on the measles.“Not all illnesses are equally dangerous and not all people are equally susceptible to those illnesses,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But measles is one you should get your vaccine.”An outbreak in South Carolina in the hundreds has surpassed the recorded case count in Texas’ 2025 outbreak, and there is also one on the Utah-Arizona border. Multiple other states have had confirmed cases this year. The outbreaks have mostly impacted children and have come as infectious disease experts warn that rising public distrust of vaccines generally may be contributing to the spread of a disease once declared eradicated by public health officials.Asked in the television interview whether people should fear the measles, Oz replied, “Oh, for sure.” He said Medicare and Medicaid will continue to cover the measles vaccine as part of the insurance programs.“There will never be a barrier to Americans get access to the measles vaccine. And it is part of the core schedule,” Oz said.But Oz also said “we have advocated for measles vaccines all along” and that Kennedy “has been on the very front of this.”Questions about vaccines did not come up later in a Kennedy interview on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing,” where he was asked about what kind of Super Bowl snack he might have (probably yogurt). He also he eats steak with sauerkraut in the mornings.Critics of Kennedy have argued that the health secretary’s longtime skepticism of U.S. vaccine recommendations and past sympathy for the unfounded claim that vaccines may cause autism may influence official public health guidance in ways contrary to the medical consensus.Oz argued that Kennedy’s stance was supportive of the measles vaccine despite Kennedy’s general comments about the recommended vaccine schedule.“When the first outbreak happened in Texas, he said, get your vaccines for measles, because that’s an example of an ailment that you should get vaccinated against,” Oz said. The Republican administration last month dropped some vaccine recommendations for children, an overhaul of the traditional vaccine schedule that the Department of Health and Human Services said was in response to a request from Trump.Trump asked the agency to review how peer nations approach vaccine recommendations and consider revising U.S. guidance accordingly.States, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. While federal requirements often influence those state regulations, some states have begun creating their own alliances to counter the administration’s guidance on vaccines.U.S. vaccination rates have dropped and the share of children with exemptions has reached an all-time high, according to federal data. At the same time, rates of diseases that can be protected against with vaccines, such as measles and whooping cough, are rising across the country. Kennedy’s past anti-vaccine activism Kennedy’s past skepticism of vaccines has come under scrutiny since Trump first nominated him to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.During his Senate confirmation testimony last year, Kennedy told lawmakers that a closely scrutinized 2019 trip he took to Samoa, which came before a devastating measles outbreak, had “nothing to do with vaccines.”But documents obtained by The Guardian and The Associated Press undermine that testimony. Emails sent by staffers at the U.S. Embassy and the United Nations said that Kennedy sought to meet with top Samoan officials during his trip to the Pacific island nation.Samoan officials later said Kennedy’s trip bolstered the credibility of anti-vaccine activists before the measles outbreak, which sickened thousands of people and killed 83, mostly children under age 5. Mixed messaging on autism, vaccines Oz’s comments mark a broader pattern among administration officials of voicing discordant and at times contradictory statements about the efficacy of vaccines amid an overhaul of U.S. public health policy.Officials have walked a fine line in criticizing past U.S. vaccine policy, often at times appearing to express sympathy for unfounded conspiracy theories from anti-vaccine activists, while also not straying too far from established science.During a Senate hearing Tuesday, Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health, said no single vaccine causes autism, but he did not rule out the possibility that research may find some combination of vaccines could have negative health side effects.But Kennedy, in Senate testimony, has argued that a link between vaccines and autism has not been disproved.He has previously claimed that some components of vaccines, like the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal, may cause childhood neurological disorders such as autism. Most vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella do not contain thimerosal. A federal vaccine advisory board overhauled by Kennedy last year voted to no longer recommend thimerosal-containing vaccines.Administration public health officials often cite the need to restore trust in public health systems after the coronavirus pandemic, when vaccine policy and the general public health response to the deadly pandemic became a highly polarizing topic in American politics.Misinformation and conspiracy theories about the public health system also spread during the pandemic, and longtime anti-vaccine activist groups saw a swell in interest from the wider public.Kennedy, who for years led the anti-vaccine activist group Children’s Health Defense, has been criticized for ordering reviews of vaccines and public health guidelines that leading medical research groups have deemed settled science.Public health experts also criticized the president for making unfounded claims about highly politicized health issues. During a September Oval Office event, Trump asserted without evidence that Tylenol and vaccines are linked to a rise in the incidence of autism in the United States. Matt Brown, Associated Press
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Some people love watching the Super Bowl for the game. Others love it for the commercials. If youre in the latter group, youll probably have noticed that the ad spots in between commercial breaks during Super Bowl LX last night were dominated by one big theme: artificial intelligence. As noted by AdWeek, the television advertising analytics firm iSpot found that nearly a quarter of all commercials during the 2026 Super Bowl featured AI in some way. To be more precise, 15 out of the 66 commercialsor 23% of themeither used AI in their creation (like the entirely AI-generated ad from the vodka maker SVEDKA) or were spots by big tech companies directly advertising their AI services. It’s the spots by those big tech companies that show how the race to capture the attention of non-techie consumers has heated up. Most of the big tech companies that advertised their AI during the Super Bowl last night have spent hundreds of billions combined building out their AI systems. Now they want to make sure their user numbers grow big enough to justify their capital expenditures. Here’s a list of tech companies that ran AI-related spots last night: Amazon The fun spot stars a paranoid Chris Hemsworth who distrusts the companys new Alexa+ AI assistant. Genspark The AI workplace assistant startups ad starred Mathew Broderick and is notable because its script was actually generated by the Genspark AI platform, notes iSpot. Google The search giants ad takes the heartwarming route, with a mother using Gemini to generate images of a familys new house in order to make her child feel better about the move. Meta/Oakley The ad, directed by Spike Lee, showcases the comapnies AI smart glasses. Microsoft The Redmond companys ad is all about a coach using Microsoft Copilot in Excel to find the best linebackers. It should be noted that while this ad ran during the Super Bowl, it aired online several weeks earlier. OpenAI The ChatGPT makers ad focuses on its new Codex software development tools.
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Telehealth company Hims & Hers dropped its plan to offer a knockoff version of the weight-loss pill Wegovy on Saturday two days after it announced the new drug and one day after the Food and Drug Administration threatened to restrict access to the ingredients needed to copy popular weight-loss medications.Hims had said Thursday that it would offer a compounded version of the new Wegovy pill that drugmaker Novo Nordisk just began selling last month. Novo immediately threatened to sue Hims, and then the FDA said Friday that it plans to take decisive steps to limit access to the active ingredients in popular GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy, Ozempic and Zepbound.Hims’ own website still touted the new semaglutide pill offering Saturday afternoon hours after it announced on X that it will no longer sell the medicine. Semaglutide is the chemical name for Wegovy.“Since launching the compounded semaglutide pill on our platform, we’ve had constructive conversations with stakeholders across the industry. As a result, we have decided to stop offering access to this treatment,” Hims said in its statement. “We remain committed to the millions of Americans who depend on us for access to safe, affordable, and personalized care.”Hims didn’t say Saturday whether it will make any changes to the compounded versions of injectable weight-loss medications it has been selling as a result of the FDA action.The San Francisco-based company had planned to significantly undercut Novo’s price of $149 per month for the Wegovy pill by selling its version at $49 for the first month and $99 per month thereafter. Hims and other similar companies got started several years ago by offering cheap generic versions of drugs for hair loss, erectile dysfunction and other health issues before branching out into the multibillion market for obesity medications.Novo plans to tout its new FDA-approved Wegovy pill in a celebrity-filled Super Bowl ad on Sunday. The Danish pharmaceutical giant didn’t immediately comment Saturday on Hims’ decision to drop the knockoff. Rival drugmaker Eli Lilly has said that it expects the FDA to approve an oral version of its orforglipron weight loss medication later this spring. But Wegovy is the first pill to hit the market.The compounded medicine that Hims had planned to sell wasn’t approved and had not gone through trials to demonstrate that it would be effective.The FDA permits specialty pharmacies and other companies to make compounded versions of brand name drugs when they are in short supply. And the booming demand for GLP-1 drugs in recent years prompted companies like Hims to jump into the multibillion-dollar market for the drugs, with many patients willing to pay cash.In 2024, the FDA said that GLP-1 drugs were no longer in a shortage, which was expected to put an end to the compounding. But companies like Hims relied on an exception to keep selling their versions of the medications because the practice is still permitted when a prescription is customized for the patient. Josh Funk, AP Business Writer
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