ANALYSIS \u2014 Donald Trump and Republicans have an affordability problem, even as the president appeared reluctant Tuesday night to admit it.<\/p>\n
After spending most of his second term at the White House, overseas or at his south Florida resorts, Trump jetted to Monroe County in Pennsylvania Tuesday \u2014 one of the most competitive counties in the must-win battleground state \u2014 to talk stubbornly high prices.<\/p>\n
But the populist GOP president did not spell out a clear plan to provide Americans relief at the cash register, gas pump or ticket counter. Instead, he echoed some of his aides by promising major economic improvement in the new year, touting his tariffs and blaming his predecessor for higher costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going to see what happens over the next two years. It\u2019s like a miracle is taking place. But we\u2019ve taken in hundreds of billions of dollars, really trillions,\u201d said Trump, who was accompanied on Air Force One by Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Dave McCormick. \u201cAnd if you add to that, all of the companies that are pouring their money to building right now, building plants in Pennsylvania and many other states, auto plants, AI plants, plants of every type, which we would have never had if we didn\u2019t put the tariffs on.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Harvard-Harris<\/a> survey released this week showed 57 percent of respondents believe the president is losing his fight with inflation. The same Harvard-Harris poll found inflation was most respondents\u2019 (47 percent) top issue by a wide margin over \u201crestoring basic American values of merit\u201d at 13 percent and immigration at 11 percent. That survey also found 56 percent said Trump\u2019s policies have been harming the economy, against 44 percent who replied helping \u2014 with 67 percent of independents going with harming.<\/p>\n And 46 percent of those who participated in a Politico poll<\/a> released last week said the cost of living in the United States is the worst they have ever experienced. Most participants also said Trump holds more responsibility over the state of the economy than Biden.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here are four takeaways from a rare Trump 2.0 domestic trip.<\/p>\n \u2018Always have a hoax\u2019<\/p>\n Trump struggled to hit his affordability message, veering from topic to topic under a speech style he calls \u201cThe Weave.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have no higher priority than making America affordable. Again, that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do. And again, they cause the high prices, and we\u2019re bringing them down. It\u2019s a simple message. If I had one message tonight, you know, this is being covered like all over the world. This is crazy, because I haven\u2019t made a speech in a little while,\u201d he said, not quite getting to that affordability message.<\/p>\n Soon he was on to the 2026 midterm campaign, then his push to revive the U.S. coal industry. He briefly weaved back to the event\u2019s ostensible topic.<\/p>\n \u201cPrices are coming down very substantially,\u201d he said, falsely. \u201cBut they have a new word. You know, they always have a hoax. The new word is affordability.\u00a0 So they look at the camera and they say, \u2018This direction is all about affordability.\u2019 Now, they never talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Except that Democratic lawmakers bring up high prices on a daily basis.<\/p>\n Despite the poor poll numbers for Trump and the GOP on prices and the economy in general, one veteran Senate Democrat said his party should not feel overconfident even as voters side with them on kitchen table issues.<\/p>\n Asked last Thursday if the president\u2019s struggles to craft an effective affordability message and plan makes him more confident going into next November\u2019s midterm elections, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., replied, \u201cI\u2019m never confident.\u201d<\/p>\n Other Democrats agree, including strategist Mike Nellis.<\/p>\n \u201cRemember: [at] this time in 2020, nobody thought we\u2019d flip two Senate seats in Georgia. But we did. Strange things happen,\u201d he wrote<\/a> last Wednesday on Substack. \u201cWe\u2019ve got the makings of that now. \u2026 Trump is in free fall. The GOP is in trouble. And the Democratic Party \u2014 flawed as it is \u2014 is on the rise heading into the midterms. \u2026 But heading into 2026, I\u2019m feeling pretty damn good about our chances.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Start campaigning\u2019<\/p>\n The president, still the top draw in Republican politics, signaled he intends to be active on the midterms campaign trail after doing very little domestic travel this year.<\/p>\n \u201cThe chief of staff, and she\u2019s fantastic, she said, \u2018We have to start campaigning, sir.\u2019 I said, \u2018I won. \u2026 Already?\u2019 They said, \u2018We have to win the midterms, and you\u2019re the guy that\u2019s going to take us over the midterm,\u201d he said, referring to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.<\/p>\n One Trump surrogate suggested he will talk about trying to lower prices when he campaigns.<\/p>\n Reince Priebus, a former Trump White House chief of staff, said his former boss remains irked at how Republicans talk about prices ahead of the Monroe speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think what \u2026 he\u2019s cranky about is the fact that some of the messaging, I think, on the Republican side isn\u2019t where it needs to be. I mean, he had the huge tax bill,\u201d Priebus told ABC News in a Sunday interview. \u201cGas prices are down. Inflation, from where it was a year ago, is in a much better place, and I think it\u2019s going to take some time for it to come around.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I think that impatience, of that time, [on] this issue [is] coming around,\u201d he added. \u201cThem getting hammered on affordability is making him cranky, that\u2019s true. But I think, all in all, he\u2019s got a lot to be proud of. \u2026 Everyone says, \u2018Oh, that must mean Trump has high prices.\u2019 No.\u201d<\/p>\n In many ways, Trump\u2019s message to a crowd assembled at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono on Tuesday mirrored what he has claimed on the affordability issue for weeks: Former President Joe Biden\u2019s administration remains solely responsible for inflation and still-high prices, and he, almost single-handedly, has quelled inflation. He also ticked off his usual list of questionable claims about his second term and said 2026 will be the year his policies kick in.<\/p>\n The Consumer Price Index hit a Biden-era high of 9.1 percent in June 2022, before cooling to 3 percent when he left office in January. It stood at 3 percent<\/a> at the end of September after dipping to 2.3 percent in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. <\/p>\n Still, several new polls show big trouble for Trump and Republicans on all issues economic.<\/p>\n \u2018Send her back\u2019<\/p>\n While the president opted against focusing on curbing prices and inflation, he did flash that vintage Trump rally vitriol.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe ought to get her the hell out,\u201d he said of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. \u201cThrow her the hell out.\u201d<\/p>\n