Fox Business host Charles Payne thinks President Donald Trump’s 50-year mortgage plan is a bad idea.
Payne, a host of the network’s Making Money with Charles Payne program and a former Wall Street analyst, appeared on Monday’s episode of America’s Newsroom on Fox News and gave his thoughts on Trump’s proposed alteration to mortgage payments.
“I do not like this idea,” Payne said plainly to co-hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino when asked about whether this idea would affect affordability.
Payne posed an example to illustrate how the concept sounds good, but is actually dramatically more expensive in the long term.
Using a $500,000 mortgage loan at a 4 percent interest rate as an example, Payne pointed out that the cost of a 30-year loan would total around $2,300 per month, while a 50-year plan would be around $1,900. While the monthly savings might make it seem like an attractive option, Payne noted that looks can be deceiving.
“So you’re saving almost $500 a month in terms of ‘affordability,’ but by the time you finish paying this bad boy off, the 30-year, you pay $359,000, versus a 50-year, [you’d pay] almost $700,000,” Payne explained. “So it’s a gargantuan difference just to make people feel better, and that’s not the way to do this.”
“I’d rather see President Trump do some other things with that tariff money,” he added.
Payne’s rebuke of the mortgage plan shakeup comes after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte announced the plan was in motion in a post on X on Saturday. Pulte, who was appointed under Trump, called the plan a “complete game changer.”
Payne is not alone in his concerns about the elongated repayment plan—even among Trump’s biggest supporters. MAGA lightning rod Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X that the plan would “ultimately reward the banks, mortgage lenders and homebuilders.”
“In debt forever, in debt for life!” the Georgia congresswoman added.
Right-wing podcaster Matt Walsh said in a post on X regarding the plan: “This just means your house will be owned by the bank until you die, and after. We don’t need 50-year mortgages.”
Though Payne disagrees with the mortgage plan, he said he “strongly” believes the country is “on the precipice of an economic boom”—citing forthcoming benefits from the One Big Beautiful Bill, encouragement for companies building domestically and a more amenable Federal Reserve going into next year.
