Donald Trump was forced onto the back foot after a familiar adversary blasted him as a “wannabe dictator,” prompting an unprecedented phone call from the president.
During a speech at the National Press Club in Washington on Monday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren blasted Trump and accused him of failing to act on affordability issues.
The Massachusetts Democrat pointed to the ROAD to Housing legislation, a bill to encourage more housing construction that passed the Senate last year. The House, under the leadership of Republican Speaker Mike Johnson, has not picked up the bill.
And nor has Trump, according to Warren. “Where is Donald Trump? Has he lifted a finger to move that bill forward in the House of Representatives?” she asked. “He sure knows how to get on the phone when he doesn’t like what they’re doing over the Epstein files.”
The veteran left-winger also charged that Trump was “doing not one damn thing” to lower housing costs and accused the president of “missing in action” on his proposal to cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent.
Warren said Trump later called her, giving her a chance to repeat her demands directly. “I told him that Congress can pass legislation to cap credit card rates if he will actually fight for it,” she said, adding that she urged him to push House Republicans to pass the bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described the exchange as “a good call,” saying it was initiated on the fly. “He heard about the speech and said, ‘Let me call her,’” Leavitt said, adding that “President Trump has shown a willingness to pick up the phone and talk with anyone.”
According to the Washington Post, it was the first time Trump had ever called Warren directly.
Trump, 79, and Warren, 76, have a long history of antagonism, with Trump mocking her as “Pocahontas” during his first term in office after it emerged that she had once claimed Native American ancestry without offering clear proof.
At an Oval Office event in August, he labeled her “a mean, horrible human being” who was out to wreck financial institutions and drive farmers out of business.
In the same month, Trump lashed out at Warren in a series of social media posts as she slammed him for firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after a brutal Friday jobs report.
“In just 6 months, I cut costs, especially Energy and Taxes, Tremendously. Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren, on CNBC, said costs have gone up. She is just angry that I blew up her terrible Presidential Campaign. Call her out!!!” Trump wrote in one post.
“Elizabeth Warren is a LOSER! She lies about everything, including the fact that she is an Indian. She’s NOT. She’s no Pocahontas!!!” he wrote in another.
But the latest clash between the two adversaries centred around a key issue for the 2026 midterms: affordability.
With affordability expected to be a central campaign issue, Warren said Trump has a “credibility problem,” arguing: “He’s just shooting out one idea after another and doing not one damn thing to actually lower the cost of housing for the American people.”
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