Assigning blame for the nation’s higher cost living, Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday visited the Lehigh Valley for a speech on the economy.
It came one week after President Donald Trump visited eastern Pennsylvania himself, touting a focus on combating inflation in remarks that weaved wildly to cover numerous grievances.
Vance spoke for about 35 minutes, including taking questions from reporters, at the Uline Shipping Supplies warehouse in Lower Macungie Township outside Alburtis.
The vice president pointed to an improving economy. However, U.S. Labor Department numbers released Tuesday showed the national unemployment rate rose to 4.6% last month — the highest since 2021.
U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer joined Vance at the warehouse, standing before red-and-green-labeled Uline boxes as she celebrated a decent gain of 64,000 jobs in November. The growth was offset by the loss of 105,000 jobs in October as federal workers departed after cutbacks by the Trump administration.
Trump is encouraging investment in United States jobs by penalizing companies “for doing something overseas that you ought to do in the United States of America,” Vance said. Without offering specifics, he said Pennsylvania is seeing “$100 billion of new investment.” That’s in the ballpark of the $90 billion of investments in data centers, energy and power infrastructure, and workforce and AI training projects celebrated by Trump and U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., in July.
“So if you look at every single affordability crisis that we talk about in the United States of America today, it’s because we inherited a nightmare of an economy from Joe Biden,” Vance summarized, referring to the Democratic administration sandwiched between Trump’s terms as the 45th and 47th president.
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, himself a target of criticism at Tuesday’s event, responded earlier Tuesday morning to Trump’s claims from a week ago in Monroe County that Democrats had used the term “affordability” as a “hoax” to hurt his reputation.
“Donald Trump and JD Vance’s economic policies are hurting Pennsylvania,” Shapiro wrote on social media. “They have raised prices at the grocery store, screwed over our farmers, and gutted healthcare funding.
“I know this Administration thinks the cost of living is a ‘hoax’ — but it’s not, and Pennsylvania families know it. And JD Vance — the Lehigh Valley is the last place you should try and sell your BS alternative reality.”
Among the speakers taking the stage before Vance were Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who is eyeing a 2026 Republican run for governor, and U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, the first-term Republican representing the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District.
Vance seized on lower fuel costs across the United States as a factor in driving down stubborn costs, both for the truckers who deliver to supermarkets and the farmers who grow our food.
The White House says inflation has dropped to an average of 2.7% during Trump’s new term.
Private sector wage growth is up 4.2%, Vance said.
That’s helped to reverse a loss of nearly $3,000 in purchasing power as inflation rose faster than wages under Biden, according to the White House.
Vance pointed to other factors that he says are behind higher costs that the Trump administration is fighting: “Illegal aliens” pushing up rent and prescription drug prices as “the biggest drivers of increased health care costs.”
Vice President JD Vance boards Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. He blamed former President Joe Biden for an affordability crisis during a Lehigh Valley visit later in the morning, while Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro called President Donald Trump administration’s economic message “BS alternative reality.”Tom Brenner/The New York Times via AP
Lehigh County’s Democratic executive-elect, Joshua Siegel, responded to Vance’s appearance: “Today’s visit by JD Vance was not about helping working families in the Lehigh Valley. His remarks are just a continuation from a con job presidency that has been defrauding Pennsylvanians. He has nothing to offer but more of Trump’s broken promises, delivered to con the American people and distract them from this administration’s lies and failures.”
On the whole, Vance echoed Trump’s self-assessment of his handling of the economy as deserving of an “A-plus-plus-plus” grade, greeted by cheers from an animated crowd of supporters.
So far, however, the public has been skeptical about Trump’s economic performance. Just 33% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, according to a November survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A realclearpolling.com average of national polls on Trump’s economy shows 40.8% who approve to 55.7% disapproval; the website’s aggregation of polls on Trump’s job overall performance is slightly better with 43.9% approval compared to an average of 53.4% who disapprove.
“I’m a little surprised by when the Democrats talk all the time about affordability,” Vance said. “Democrats say: ‘Things aren’t affordable. This isn’t affordable. This has gotten more expensive. Drugs have gotten more expensive. Housing’s gotten more expensive.’ And you know what? They’re right. And it was because of them. It ain’t that hard.”
Vance touched on issues unrelated to the economy, including Vanity Fair’s piece based on extensive interviews with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who described him as “a conspiracy theorist for a decade.”
“Sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true,” Vance told the Lehigh County gathering Tuesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.