WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is adjusting his messaging strategy to win over voters who: I’m worried about the cost of living I have a plan to emphasize new tax cuts and show progress in the battle inflation.
The message centers on affordability, and the move comes after an overwhelming majority of voters said inflation emerged as a major vulnerability for President Trump and the Republican Party in Tuesday’s election. the economy was their biggest concern.
Democrats used affordability concerns to win big gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, turning what was a strength for Trump in the 2024 presidential election into a vulnerability in next year’s midterm elections.
White House officials and others familiar with their thinking requested anonymity for this article to avoid pre-empting the president’s actions. They emphasized that affordability has always been a priority for President Trump, but the president also plans to say more about it, as he did Thursday when announcing the partnership between Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Lowering the price of anti-obesity drugs.
“We, not the Democrats, have done a great job of making it affordable,” Trump said at an Oval Office event announcing the deal. “They said they just lost the election because of affordability. This is the work of fraudsters by the Democratic Party.”
Inflation outlook uncertain
Currently, the outlook for inflation has worsened under the Trump administration. Consumer prices rose significantly in September 3% p.a.,from 2.3% in April; That’s when the president first began significantly raising tariffs, suddenly creating uncertainty in the economy. The economy was a key issue in Tuesday’s elections in New Jersey, Virginia, New York City and California, according to an Associated Press voter poll.
Food prices continue to rise, and electricity bills have recently become a new cause for concern. at the same time, The pace of employment growth has slowedplummeting 23% from its pace a year ago.
The White House maintains a list of economic topics, noting the stock market’s repeated record highs and the president’s efforts to attract foreign investment. President Trump emphasized that gas prices are falling, claiming they average $2 a gallon, but AAA reported Thursday that the national average is $3.08, about 2 cents lower than a year ago.
“Americans are paying less for essentials like gas and eggs, and today our government entered into yet another drug price agreement to provide ordinary Americans with unprecedented health care savings,” White House Press Secretary Khush Desai said in a statement.
White House officials said Trump is briefed on the economy by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other officials at least once a week, and that tariffs are frequently discussed daily, noting that Trump is expected to increase domestic travel next year to make the case for affordability.
The White House has been posting a steady stream of posts on social media about prices and deals on Thanksgiving dinner staples at retailers like Walmart, Lidl, Aldi and Target.
“Republicans have a much better economy,” Trump said Thursday night. “The only problem is that Republicans don’t talk about it.
But critics say it will be difficult for President Trump to change public perceptions of affordability.
“He’s in real trouble, and I think it’s a bigger issue than just the cost of living,” said Lindsey Owens, executive director of the liberal economic advocacy group Groundwork Collaborative.
Mr. Owens said Mr. Trump is “losing power” as voters have grown more suspicious of Mr. Trump’s economic leadership compared to Democrats, adding that a president who continues to pursue broad tariffs has no time to change public perceptions.
New hype about income tax cuts heading into April
A person familiar with White House thinking said new affordability policies would be rolled out, but declined to comment on what they would look like. President Trump hinted Thursday that more agreement could be reached on drug prices. Two other White House officials said the message would change, but the policy would not.
A big part of the administration’s affordability response will be educating people ahead of tax season about the role of President Trump’s income tax cuts in the refunds they will receive in April, according to people familiar with the plan. Those cuts are vast bill Republicans pushed it through Congress in July.
The person stressed that the main challenge is to bring down prices and at the same time raise wages so that people can feel and see progress.
Some believe that the economy will be in a healthier state in six months. As Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s term ends in May, the White House expects the Fed to begin consistently lowering its benchmark interest rate. They expect financial market sentiment to improve as inflation subsides and the federal budget deficit declines.
But the U.S. economy rarely cooperates with the president’s wishes, a lesson Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, recently learned after seeing his approval ratings slump after inflation hit a 40-year high in June 2022.
The Trump administration claims it is only dealing with the inflation problem it inherited from Biden, but new economic research shows that Trump is creating his own inflation problem through tariffs.
Harvard economist Alberto Cavallo and colleagues Paola Lama of Northwestern University and Franco Vazquez of San Andres University have been tracking the impact of import taxes on consumer prices since April.
Economists wrote in an October paper that without President Trump’s tariffs, inflation would have been much lower at 2.2%.
The administration maintains that tariffs do not contribute to inflation. They argue that import taxes support the economy and will dismiss criticism from Democrats that import taxes contribute to inflation.
The fate of Trump’s country-specific tariffs is currently being decided by the Supreme Court, but in a hearing Wednesday, the justices appeared to have doubts about the administration’s argument that tariffs are regulatory in nature and can be imposed by the president without Congressional approval. President Trump has at times claimed that foreign countries, not U.S. citizens, pay the tariffs, but on Thursday he slightly backtracked on that claim.
“They might be paying something,” he said. “But when you consider the overall impact, Americans have benefited significantly.”
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Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.
