The American public no longer buys the US President’s claims he is boosting the economy
The Trump-world pivot to affordability officially starts today, on Tuesday, but one person may not have got the message: Donald Trump himself.
The US President is set to deliver a speech in Pennsylvania that will mark the start of a new focus on the domestic agenda, specifically the affordability crisis.
Trump’s aides are desperately hoping he stays on script and reassures voters that he will help them bring down the cost of living.
But this being Trump that is unlikely, bordering on improbable.
The President has recently called affordability a “Democrat con job” and flatly rejected the idea that people are worse off.
In Trump’s world, America is enjoying an unparalleled time of success and the bounty will soon be shared with voters.
That’s proving hard to stomach for many Americans, who have seen inflation soar over the past five years.
Grocery prices in the US have increased a staggering 29 percent since February 2020 and 3.2 percent in the last year alone, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics.
While the pandemic and supply chain issues were partly to blame, as was the war in Ukraine, Trump’s tariffs have also played a part.
Thanks to the tariffs, grocery prices saw their biggest jump in three years in August – and voters are blaming the President.
A November poll from Yahoo and YouGov found that nearly half of consumers think Trump is driving prices up. Some 55 percent of voters now disapprove of the President’s economic policies, according to a recent poll from the New York Times.
Amid that difficult climate, enter Trump, a man for whom empathy is about as welcome as a Somali migrant at a MAGA wedding.
But empathy is exactly what Trump needs to show the public, otherwise he and the Republicans are going to get crushed in the 2026 midterm elections.
It’s not enough to claim, as Trump did on Sunday night at the Kennedy Center in Washington, that “we’re making so much money with tariffs”.
People just don’t buy that when they have less money in their pockets at the end of the month.
Trump can try and bend reality all he wants – it is one of his superpowers – but unless he can make things cheaper then he simply won’t win the argument.
One of the problems with this is that Trump’s previous efforts at tackling the affordability question did not go well.
In mid November he spoke in front of dozens of McDonald’s franchise owners in Washington in front of a sign that read: “The Golden Age”.
Trump bragged about serving French fries at a McDonald’s in Philadelphia during his re-election campaign in 2024 and veered off topic in a rambling address.
Previous speeches on affordability have been all about pointing the finger at Joe Biden, a tactic which grows weaker with every day Trump is in office.
Voters shrugged on Monday after the President unveiled a $12bn package to help struggling farmers – money they need because of the damage caused by his tariffs.
Last month the White House rolled back tariffs on 200 items including beef and coffee, which have increased by double-digit amounts in the past 12 months.
That is a huge U-turn for a man who claimed that tariffs were going to “take back our economic sovereignty”.
But despite that, major retailers like clothing seller Under Armour and supermarket chain Kohl’s have already warned that prices will increase, starting as soon as this month.
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The President’s plan for a $2,000 per person rebate from the tariffs went nowhere and the tariffs themselves may be ruled illegal by the Supreme Court, which seemed skeptical when it heard arguments on their legality on 5 November.
So when Trump walks out on stage on Tuesday he has to do something that doesn’t come naturally to him: he has to show people that he cares, and they have to believe him.
Just as the pandemic derailed Trump’s re-election campaign during his first term, his inability to relate to cash-strapped voters could be what sinks him the second time around.
