Trump's war on veterans targets program to help them keep their homes
The Department of Veterans Affairs is ending a program that has helped over 17,000 veterans attain homeownership. It is just the latest in a series of attacks and slights against veterans from President Donald Trump.
The VA announced on Thursday that it was putting an end to the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase Program. The program purchases defaulted mortgage loans for veterans facing financial hardship and then offers them as direct loans with a fixed 2.5% interest rate.
“Beginning May 1, 2025, VA's Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase Program [VASP] ... will stop accepting new enrollees,” the VA said in a statement to NPR. “This change is necessary because VA is not set up or intended to be a mortgage loan restructuring service.”
Experts say this will create a crisis for veterans and their families.
“Halting the VASP program will increase the number of veterans facing foreclosure unless the VA and Congress implement a permanent partial claim option as soon as possible,” said Bob Broeksmit, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, in a statement.
Trump has come under fire in the past after it was revealed—and verified by his then-White House chief of staff John Kelly—that he referred to deceased military veterans as “suckers” and “losers.” And he has repeatedly disrespected veterans: On Friday, Trump blew off honoring four U.S. soldiers who died in Lithuania during a training exercise to instead attend a Saudi-backed golf tournament at his country club.
The Biden administration launched the VASP program in April of last year after it was revealed that thousands of veterans were in danger of losing their homes after a program implemented at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic ended.
Then-VA Secretary Denis McDonough said at the time that the VA was “committed to doing everything in our power to help veterans avoid foreclosure.” Under Trump, that is no longer the case.
Congressional Republicans back Trump’s decision to cut off this lifeline for veterans.
In a joint statement Rep. Mike Bost of Illinois, chair of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, along with Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin), chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, said, “We—along with many of our colleagues—had serious concerns about the impact VASP would have on not only the future of VA’s home loan program, but the mortgage lending business as a whole. Today, the Trump administration rightfully put an end to VA’s VASP program.”
The program’s closure is the latest in a series of attacks on veterans from the Trump administration. Under the auspices of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, the VA has cut staff—likely adding to wait times for veterans seeking care while also complicating efforts in dealing with day-to-day care issues.
Veterans have also been affected by the administration’s actions to cut thousands of government workers. These concerns were dismissed by then-Trump aide Alina Habba who told Fox News in March, “We have taxpayer dollars, we have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people who actually work, that doesn't mean we forget about our veterans by any means, we are going to care for them in the right way, but perhaps they're not fit to have a job at this moment or are not willing to come to work.”
Habba has since been promoted to interim U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey.
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