9 Ways That Trump’s ‘Affordability’ Week Was a Total Disaster
The president briefly tried to focus on ‘affordability.’ He ended up disputing the idea Americans are worried about high prices, calling it ‘a con job.’
The morning after Republicans were routed in the 2025 elections, Donald Trump made it sound like he got the message. “Affordability is our goal,” the president posted on Truth Social, his social media platform.
White House deputy chief of staff James Blair, a top Trump political adviser, acknowledged that the GOP candidate in New Jersey, for instance, hadn’t addressed the issue of “affordability very effectively,” while New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani was “relentlessly focused on affordability.” Going forward, Blair indicated Trump would “be very, very focused on prices and cost of living.”
In his second term, Trump has been anything but focused on lowering prices or easing Americans’ cost of living. The president has unilaterally imposed high tariffs – taxes that Americans pay – on many household staples, setting and shifting the levies whenever he’s felt like it. Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” slashed taxes for the wealthy while taking away Medicaid health insurance and SNAP food aid from millions of low-income Americans next year. His violent immigration raids are decimating the US workforce.
Behind the scenes, two sources familiar with the matter tell Zeteo, the president has been vocally complaining about how much the media and Democratic politicos are hammering him on affordability lately, given that – as Trump spins it – his policies have already made “everything” less expensive for the American consumer. (They haven’t.) Trump and his lieutenants have also increased the frequency with which they’re blaming his predecessor, Joe Biden, for high costs and inflation, in hopes that passing the buck to the unpopular ex-president will resonate with voters. (It doesn’t.)
Furthermore, those who’ve worked for Trump for years say the president absolutely hates it when a catchphrase or buzzword that he didn’t popularize takes off in the national press. The president is so territorial about messaging that he refused to use the emasculating nickname “Tiny D” when trashing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the 2024 GOP primary. “He didn’t come up with it,” a Trump adviser recalls.
Now, Trump is having to talk about “affordability,” and he visibly can’t stand it. “I don’t want to hear about the affordability,” Trump said on Friday. He appeared to mean he didn’t want to hear about how Americans are struggling with high prices – the precise issue that got him elected.
Here are nine ways that Trump’s reluctant, week-long focus on “affordability” was an unmitigated disaster.