Today’s Big Story

50-Year Mortgages?

The White House’s mortgage proposal has one notable benefit but a number of drawbacks

Call me crazy, but taking out a loan for half a century seems a bit extreme. But as housing affordability has priced many Americans out of buying a home, President Donald Trump has floated the idea of a 50-year mortgage. Some people cheered and others gasped. Could it really make owning a home a little easier and more affordable?

High home prices are a problem, having soared 56% since January 2020. Two reasons are excessive government spending that fueled inflation and historically low pandemic-era interest rates. The Federal Reserve then had to raise rates to bring inflation under control. The result: Average monthly payments on a new home have climbed some 80% over the last five years. This means fewer young people can afford a home. The median age of first-time buyers this year reached an all-time high of 40, compared to the late 20s in the 1980s. Public surveys show the cost of housing is an acute worry for young Americans.

Enter Trump, who seems to have been sold on the 50-year mortgage by Bill Pulte, who runs the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). The aim is to reduce monthly payments by amortizing the loan over a longer period. Instead of paying down the principal over 30 years, borrowers would do so over 50. As the Wall Street Journal points out, it’s true that the extended repayment period could cut monthly payments by a few hundred dollars, “but it would also increase the interest borrowers pay by hundreds of thousands of dollars over the life of the loan.” Borrowers might also have to pay higher interest rates to compensate for the greater risk of default over 50 years.

Consider someone taking out a $500,000 home loan. The current rate on a 30-year mortgage is 6.22%, per Freddie Mac. For these calculations, let's assume that a 50-year loan's interest rate exceeds the 30-year by the same margin that the 30-year rate exceeds a 15-year rate. After five years, for example, the 30-year borrower would have paid off $33,481 of the loan balance, versus $6,707 for the 50-year borrower. After three decades, when the 30-year mortgage is fully paid off, the 50-year borrower would still owe about $387,000. Yikes.

“Extending a mortgage from 30 years to 50 years could double the (dollar) amount of interest paid by the homebuyer on a median priced home over the life of the loan and significantly slow equity accumulation,” one analyst told the Associated Press. Not to mention, this mortgage would be difficult to underwrite for a bank for a 40-year-old first-time homebuyer, who would be 90 years old by the time that home is paid off.

The Epstein Files, a Fiasco of Trump’s Own Making

The president now faces heat from MAGA base on ‘America First’ agenda, Epstein

President Donald Trump is suddenly in a defensive crouch as the chatter about the Jeffrey Epstein files once again dominated the conversation on Capitol Hill, television and social media. Four months ago, Trump blocked the release of the files and the recent disclosure of thousands of Epstein emails showed why. The emails contained no real smoking gun. But they shed new light on the relationship between the two men, with gossipy, unflattering descriptions of Trump by Epstein.

Now, Trump is seeing frays in the support from the MAGA crowd. A congressional push to release the government’s files on Epstein moved forward Thursday against the wishes of the White House. GOP leaders in the House say there’s a broad cross-section of the conference willing to support the plan—and it will be hard to limit defections. Trump has started calling the recent attacks “the Epstein hoax,” a distraction pushed by Democrats and said that only “a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap.”

Trump also has gotten crosswise with his allies on other matters. He drew some backlash on the right last month for aid to Argentina, which critics called at odds with the “America First” message. The Washington Post reports that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a longtime Trump ally, sparred with the president on multiple fronts after suggesting that the White House was too focused on foreign affairs. The dissent shows an impassioned base willing to challenge Trump on some issues, but will it lead to less support of his leadership?

A Vine Revival?

Jack Dorsey funds diVine, a reboot of the app that includes a 10,000 video archive

When Twitter, now X, shut down Vine in 2017, users thought its six-second videos were gone forever—but now, the former CEO who shuttered the app is helping bring them back. Jack Dorsey has personally provided funding for diVine, an ambitious project dedicated to resurrecting the beloved short-form video platform.

The new venture, led by former members of the original Vine team, is not just rebuilding the app, but has secured nearly the entire original Vine video archive. And the app won’t just exist as a walk down memory lane; it will also allow users to create profiles and upload their own new Vine videos. However, unlike on traditional social media, where AI content is often haphazardly labeled, diVine will flag suspected generative AI content and prevent it from being posted.

For the uninitiated, Vine was founded in 2012 by Rus Yusupov, Dom Hofmann and Colin Kroll. Twitter purchased the app for $30 million before launching it to the public the following year. Users would upload, share, like and comment on six-second-long videos, which mainly consisted of songs, comedy sketches and random moments. Stars like singer Shawn Mendes and YouTuber Logan Paul began their careers on the platform.

Black Rhino Born in the Wild

Against all odds, the critically endangered rhino was born in Kenya

Here’s some good news to wrap up the week: Wildlife researchers (and animal lovers like me) are celebrating the wild birth of a critically endangered eastern black rhino in Kenya. After nearly being wiped away from the region, the little calf brings the small subpopulation in its region to nine, and there are an estimated 583 mature eastern black rhinos in the wild overall.

Rangers first suspected that a new calf may have been born after seeing "distinct" baby rhino tracks that appeared to be following in the footsteps of a mother rhino during this past spring, Amy Baird, deputy director of Big Life Foundation USA, a wildlife conservation nonprofit, told ABC News.

Big Life delayed the rhino's birth announcement because calfs are extremely vulnerable in their first months. But now, at six months old, the calf’s “chance of survival increases every day,” per the organization. “If all goes well, this calf could live until 2065.”

A Weekend Pairing

‘Nouvelle Vauge‘ + a French 75 Cocktail

Be brave.