Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the Assistant Democratic Leader and one of the most senior Black lawmakers in Congress, used a Thursday morning post on X to accuse President Donald Trump of allowing his war in Iran to drive interest rates upward on American families while devoting his attention to renovating the White House, a project the president has referred to as a “palace.” Clyburn’s post, published at 8:32 a.m. on September 17, 2026, tied rising borrowing costs directly to what he called the president’s “debacle in Iran” and criticized House Republicans for canceling legislative work in Washington for nearly two months.
Clyburn’s post read in its entirety:
“Due to the President’s debacle in Iran, interest rates are unfortunately heading back up. That means higher borrowing costs for car loans, credit card balances, and mortgages on top of all the higher prices the war has already caused. The worst part is that the President seems more consumed with renovating the White House—which he recently called a ‘palace’—and House Republicans have canceled work in Washington and sent us home for nearly eight weeks. I wish we had a President and a Congress who took their responsibility to bring down prices seriously. Sadly, we do not.”
Rising Rates Follow the Fed’s First Hike Since 2023
Clyburn’s post landed a day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since 2023, with Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh citing continued elevated inflation alongside a resilient labor market as justification for the move. The average interest rate on a 30-year mortgage stood at 7.37% as of Thursday, September 17, according to Zillow data reported by CBS News, with 30-year refinance rates running even higher at 7.41%. Those figures are nearly two full percentage points above the 5.75% average recorded in early March 2026, just weeks after Trump launched military operations against Iran.
The White House has pushed back on the idea that the rate hike was necessary. Christopher Phelan, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told CNBC on Tuesday that raising rates would be a “mistake,” reflecting the administration’s broader frustration with the central bank over its refusal to move rates lower despite pressure from Trump.
The Cost of the War Itself
Clyburn’s Thursday statement builds on a message he posted two days earlier, on September 15, in which he cited a new Congressional Budget Office report finding that the war is costing taxpayers $246 million per day. In that post, Clyburn accused the administration of “squandering our tax dollars” on what he called a “failed Iran War” and said the spending was coming at the direct expense of Americans facing rising costs at home.
The CBO’s underlying analysis found that higher energy costs tied to the war helped push inflation up 2.3 percentage points, to 5.3%, in the second quarter of 2026. More than half of the war’s costs have come from replacing munitions expended during the fighting, with increased flying hours adding $10.4 billion and higher fuel prices tied to the conflict adding another $2.7 billion to the total. The report also noted that its own crude oil price projections, built on information through mid-August, may understate the war’s ongoing impact — the CBO projected Brent crude falling to $84 a barrel by the end of 2026, even as the benchmark has been trading above $103 a barrel.
An analysis from the Center for American Progress released separately found that the war has driven up long-term interest rates by roughly 0.5 percentage points, adding at least $48.1 billion in borrowing costs across households, businesses, and the federal government in 2026 alone. Under that analysis, the federal government alone will pay at least $30.8 billion more in interest on new debt this year because of war-related inflationary pressure, while American households face an estimated $4.6 billion in additional costs.
The White House “Palace”
The renovation project Clyburn referenced has been underway since Trump’s return to office. In addition to a golden-leaf redecoration of the Oval Office and the replacement of the Rose Garden lawn with stone, the administration broke ground in September on a $200 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom addition to the White House’s East Wing, funded by Trump and undisclosed private donors, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. The ballroom, designed to seat 650 guests, is intended to resemble the gilded event spaces at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and is scheduled for completion before the end of his term in January 2029.
Clyburn’s characterization of Trump calling the White House a “palace” tracks with remarks the president made this week. According to Raw Story, Trump told his Facebook followers on Wednesday that the White House was becoming “a palace,” boasting about the ongoing renovations even as a Republican infighting dispute erupted in the House.
House Republicans Head Home for Nearly Eight Weeks
Clyburn’s complaint about the congressional schedule reflects a decision House GOP leadership announced earlier this month to cancel votes during the weeks of September 21 and September 28, according to a notice from the office of Majority Whip Tom Emmer. Combined with the chamber’s already-planned October recess, the cancellation gives House members roughly six and a half weeks to campaign in their districts ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, with September 17 marking the last scheduled House voting day before the extended break.
House Speaker Mike Johnson defended the truncated schedule, telling reporters the chamber had done “phenomenal work” and that members were “jostling a lot of different priorities.” The scheduling notice left open the possibility that the House could reconvene if the Senate adopts a budget resolution clearing the way for a party-line reconciliation package Republicans have discussed pursuing before the midterms.
A Broader Democratic Pattern
Clyburn is far from alone among congressional Democrats in tying the war’s costs directly to household budgets. Senate Democrats including Alex Padilla, Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to the CBO earlier this year demanding a transparent accounting of the war’s costs, noting that gas prices had topped $6 a gallon in California and arguing that “the American people deserve to know the true costs of this conflict.”
House Democrats have made similar arguments through their committee leadership. Reps. Jared Huffman, Robert Garcia, Frank Pallone Jr., Angie Craig, and Don Beyer Jr. sent a joint letter to Trump asserting that consumer prices had reached their fastest growth in almost two years as oil costs tied to the war fed into the broader economy. And House Budget Committee Ranking Member Brendan Boyle formally requested a CBO cost estimate for the war back in March, saying taxpayers “deserve a nonpartisan estimate of the financial and economic impact” of the conflict.
What Comes Next
With the Fed having just delivered its first rate hike in three years and mortgage costs sitting near their highest levels in years, the interest-rate question is positioned to remain a central economic flashpoint through the fall campaign season. House Republicans will not return to Washington for regular legislative business until after the extended recess Clyburn referenced in his post, leaving House Democrats largely confined to statements, letters, and social media posts as their primary tools for pressuring the administration over both the war’s costs and the pace of the White House renovation project in the run-up to the November 3 midterms.
Clyburn’s office had not, as of Thursday, issued a formal press release expanding on the X post beyond the statement itself.