{"id":66466,"date":"2025-12-10T05:21:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T05:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/66466\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T05:21:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T05:21:26","slug":"trump-kicks-off-affordability-messaging-tour-after-gops-rough-off-year-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/66466\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump kicks off affordability messaging tour after GOP\u2019s rough off-year elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Trump<\/a> launched his new affordability-focused roadshow Tuesday in northeastern Pennsylvania \u2014 the first stop on a high-stakes messaging blitz meant to steady the White House<\/a> after Republicans suffered a bruising off-year election cycle in New Jersey, Virginia and New York City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no higher priority than making America affordable again. That\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd again, [Democrats] caused the high prices, and we\u2019re bringing them down. It\u2019s a simple message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Touting his accomplishments, Trump pointed to his tariff strategy, which he claimed was \u201cbringing us hundreds of billions of dollars\u201d as he brushed off criticism from naysayers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say my favorite word is the word tariff. I love it more than any other word in the dictionary,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the fake news said: \u2018that\u2019s terrible.’\u201d<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump arrives to deliver remarks on the US economy and affordability at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, December 9, 2025. REUTERS<\/p>\n

In the steel-heavy state, Trump further said steel workers \u201care doing phenomenally better\u201d due to his strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we didn\u2019t have tariffs, you would have no steel,\u201d he said. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have one steel mill anywhere in the United States, and that would be really bad for national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to highlight his efforts to bring energy prices down with \u201cthe greatest amount of drilling, the greatest amount of fuel being produced right now in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that happens, those prices come down. That\u2019s why you\u2019re seeing oil per barrel coming down nicely, very nicely,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to go so rapidly, because we want the people that produce it to keep producing it, but they\u2019re doing good, but it\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when energy comes down, your other prices come down,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

And more wins are on the way, he said, pointing to campaign promises fulfilled in his Big Beautiful Bill set to take effect next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also putting thousands of dollars in the pockets of hard-working Pennsylvanians with the largest tax cuts in American history: That\u2019s no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security for our great seniors,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd all of that kicks in on Jan. 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether, we\u2019re repairing four years of disaster by the radical left Democrats in Congress and by the worst president in the history of our country,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The tour comes after a rough patch for the GOP, with significant losses in New Jersey, Virginia, and New York City in November, which has been attributed by Democrats and Republicans to the \u201caffordability crisis.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Trump spoke, Democrat Eileen Higgins defeated a Trump-backed Republican to become the next mayor of Miami \u2014 ending Democrats\u2019 nearly 30-year losing streak in the Florida destination.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s elections saw an erosion of gains Trump made in 2024 in key districts, including among Hispanic and Latino voters \u2013handing Democrats fresh openings heading into the 2026 midterms.<\/p>\n

Now, the president is recalibrating, hoping to refocus voters on the economy \u2014 an issue that helped him secure the White House last year, even as polls show growing skepticism in 2025.<\/p>\n

It comes after White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in a video published Monday said Trump is \u201cgoing to campaign like it\u2019s 2024 again\u201d for next year\u2019s midterm elections, using his pizzazz on the campaign trail to help Republicans keep the House and Senate the same way he did in presidential election years.<\/p>\n

\u201cTypically in the midterms, it\u2019s not about who\u2019s sitting at the White House. You localize the election, and you keep the federal officials out of it,\u201d Wiles told \u201cThe Mom View<\/a>\u201d by conservative organization Moms for America. \u201cWe\u2019re actually going to turn that on its head, and put him on the ballot, because so many of those low propensity voters are Trump voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump delivers remarks on the US economy and affordability at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, U.S. December 9, 2025. REUTERS<\/p>\n

In his speech, Trump touted lower gas prices and trumpeted his administration\u2019s economic wins on energy, while promising prosperity under his trade policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to see what happens over the next two years. It\u2019s like a miracle taking place,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

The White House sees the event as a reset \u2014 the beginning of a sustained push to convince voters that Trump\u2019s aggressive trade policies and tax-cut plans are priming the country for long-term prosperity.<\/p>\n

But recent data suggests the task may be tougher than Trumpworld wants to admit.<\/p>\n

Nearly half of registered voters said after the elections that Trump\u2019s economic policies \u2014 including his ongoing trade war with China and other major partners \u2014 are doing more harm than good, according to a November Fox News survey.<\/p>\n

Democrats smell an opening and have launched their own counteroffensive with a pocketbook-focused campaign aimed at tying Trump to rising costs and widening inequality.<\/p>\n

Attendees wait for Trump\u2019s arrival in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania on Tuesday. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Trump has called the affordability message a \u201ccon job\u201d from a party that presided over 9.1% inflation under former President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, he again blamed his predecessor for the nation\u2019s economic woes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen [former President Joe] Biden and congressional Democrats had power, they blew up our economy, sent prices soaring,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 Now Democrats in Congress want to take us straight back to the Bidenomics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attempted to bat down concerns Sunday on CBS News\u2019 \u201cFace the Nation\u201d, insisting the economy is on \u201cstrong footing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to finish the year, despite the [Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer] shutdown, with 3% real GDP growth,\u201d he said. The US Bureau of Economic Analysis will release its full third-quarter report Dec. 23.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe economy has been better than we thought. We\u2019ve had 4% GDP growth in a couple of quarters,\u201d Bessent added.<\/p>\n

The latest inflation report, delayed more than a month due to the shutdown, showed consumer prices up about 3% from September 2024 to September 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Trump launched his new affordability-focused roadshow Tuesday in northeastern Pennsylvania \u2014 the first stop on a high-stakes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[153,3365,9,11,10,3909,87,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-66466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}