Trump sets out to address Americans’ affordability concerns even as he calls those worries a ‘con job’
Ben Werschkul · Washington Correspondent
Updated Tue, December 9, 2025 at 7:34 AM EST 4 min read
President Trump is hitting the road today to address Americans’ affordability concerns head-on. But it’s a trip that comes as his rhetoric and actions often appear at odds with each other.
On one front, Trump and his team often seem to dismiss the sense that everyday costs are becoming harder to manage (or at least whether the White House holds any responsibility for it).
“You can call it affordability or anything you want, but the Democrats caused the affordability problem,” Trump offered Monday at the White House as he again falsely claimed that prices now are falling overall.
“I think the president’s frustrated by the media coverage of what’s going on,” added Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” as he argued that inflation worries are overblown.
On the other hand, Trump and his team have taken a series of actions in an apparent acknowledgement that affordability is more than a media creation.
Recent weeks have seen the president reverse some of his tariffs on grocery store items. He has also floated ideas like $2,000 tariff rebate checks and even 50-year mortgages to lower month-to-month costs.
Just this past weekend, the White House announced a new effort to address “risks from price fixing and anti-competitive behavior in the food supply chain.”
US President Donald Trump speaks during the Kennedy Center Honors dinner ahead of tomorrow’s gala, at the State Department in Washington, DC, December 6, 2025. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)
President Trump speaks during a Kennedy Center Honors dinner in Washington, D.C., on Saturday. (Brendan Smialoski/AFP via Getty Images) · BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI via Getty Images
The competing impulses are expected to be on display during the president’s stop on Tuesday in Mount Pocono, Pa.
The president is scheduled to speak at 6:10 pm ET to deliver remarks on the economy. His team has said he will spotlight both his economic record and his efforts to end inflation. He may also announce new initiatives to address affordability.
That event is expected to be followed by more travel in the weeks ahead.
‘Affordability is the greatest con job’
The president has often suggested that he personally believes his affordability problem is one of perception, rather than a real pain point.
In the Oval Office last Wednesday, Trump said “affordability is the greatest con job” by Democrats and claimed his previous actions prove he is the one actually focused on the issue.
“You’ll see those results very soon,” Trump said.
In other contexts, the president has even dismissed polling showing Americans are worried. When he was pressed about Americans’ anxiety on Fox News recently, the president shot back, dismissing those polls as “fake.”
He has also, in recent months, falsely claimed prices are dropping and contended that inflation is now in a “sweet spot.” The most recent inflation data available — the Consumer Price Index for September — shows inflation held stubbornly at an annual rate of 3%.
Trump’s approach clearly hasn’t helped his poll numbers, which offer a near-daily reminder that Americans have a sour opinion of his handling of the economy. The RealClearPolitics poll average of Trump’s approval rating on the economy stood at just 39.8% approval on Monday, compared to 57.6% who said they are unhappy with the direction of things.
A new CBS poll found that just 36% of voters approve of the president’s handling of the economy and only 32% offer positive marks for his handling of inflation.
The issue could be the president’s most glaring political vulnerability and a central threat to the GOP’s midterm election chances.
Democrats are clearly seizing on it.
Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro — a possible candidate for president in 2028 — welcomed Trump to his state Monday by saying on MS NOW that “the president has been lying about affordability … and I want to make sure that we’re setting the record straight, showing how his policies are screwing over farmers and manufacturers, making stuff cost more every day.”
A new sign outside the West Wing of the White House marks the entrance to the Oval Office on a snowy evening in Washington, DC, on December 5, 2025. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images)
New golden lettering installed outside the West Wing of the White House marks the entrance to the Oval Office on Dec. 5. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images) · BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI via Getty Images
The issue has become so muddled that, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report, there is an across-the-board effort at the White House to change Trump’s message on the economy.
Trump-led efforts to move the needle remain ongoing, including the newly announced effort to address consolidation in the food sector and illegal activity that the White House says “threatens the stability and affordability of America’s food supply.” The White House will establish task forces in the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to examine these issues and propose solutions, which could include criminal proceedings.
The move is perhaps most notable for having clear echoes of similar Biden administration efforts, which were unsuccessful.
Pressed on this fact Sunday, Treasury Secretary Bessent seemed to acknowledge at least some similarities, saying the result would be different this time while continuing to blame Biden.
“If they’d done it properly,” Bessent said, “we’d be in a different spot.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
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