In a seeming reversal from his recent promises about increasing affordability, President Donald Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Jan. 29, that his goal is to keep housing prices up to avoid inadvertently benefiting Americans who "didn't work very hard"

"People that own their homes, we're gonna keep them wealthy. We're gonna keep those prices up," he said. "We're not gonna destroy the value of their homes so that somebody who didn't work very hard can buy a home"

Stepping back a bit, he added, "We're gonna make it easier to buy, we're gonna get interest rates down, but I wanna protect the people that, for the first time in their lives, feel good about themselves. They feel like, you know, that they're wealthy people"

Trump then circled back to his plan to increase housing costs: "There's so much talk about, 'Oh, we're gonna drive housing prices down.' I don't wanna drive housing prices down, I wanna drive housing prices up for people that own their homes, and they can be assured that's what's gonna happen"

The president's latest plan comes just weeks after he announced his intention to make housing more affordable, including backing an initiative to ban corporations from being able to purchase single-family homes