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With President Trump facing sagging support in the suburbs, his administration on Thursday targeted an Obama-era affordable housing regulation, the latest in a series of appeals to white voters’ fears of crime and declining property values. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it would scrap a regulation known as Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, which was implemented by President Obama in an attempt to promote more integrated communities. Under the rule, cities receiving some federal housing aid had to develop plans to address patterns of segregation or risk losing money. (Megerian, Dillon and Stokols, 7/23)

The rule, introduced in 2015, requires cities and towns to identify patterns of discrimination, implement corrective plans and report results. The administration’s decision to complete a process of rescinding it culminates a yearslong campaign to gut the rule by conservative critics and members of the administration who claimed it overburdened communities with complicated regulations. (Fuchs, 7/23)

In a Wednesday announcement, the White House said it would be rolling back the rule as a part of a broader deregulation push. The rule has gained attention because Trump has been referencing it heavily in his push for suburban voters, falsely saying that former Vice President Joe Biden wants to "abolish" suburbs. Biden has no such plan, and his campaign calls this argument a "smear." (Kurtzleben, 7/23)