President Trump will outline his plan to tackle persistent inflation and economic concerns during a stop in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania on Tuesday, effectively kicking off a midterm season that will focus on Americans’ finances.
Mr. Trump says Democrats are using their “affordability” mantra to downplay his progress in bringing down prices that soared under the Biden administration.
Yet economic worries are unmistakable and unshakable as Mr. Trump tries to upend trade and reshape the economy.
Mr. Trump recently eased tariffs on coffee, bananas and other groceries to lower prices and outlined a multi-point plan to slash the cost of beef. He has promised bigger tax refunds and says new automobile and pharmaceutical plants will mean more jobs.
“We inherited a mess,” Mr. Trump said at the White House. “The Democrats caused the affordability problem, and we’re the ones who are fixing it.”
Mr. Trump will make that case Tuesday at Mt. Airy Casino Resort in Pennsylvania, a state he won in 2016 and 2024, but lost to President Biden in 2020.
As the Biden administration fades from view, Mr. Trump is racing to show progress. His approval rating under Gallup’s closely watched measure sank from 47% in January to 36% as of last month.
Only 36% of voters strongly or slightly approved of Mr. Trump’s handling of the economy in a November poll from Marquette University, down from 43% in July.
Workers are being laid off in high numbers, and the manufacturing sector is shedding jobs instead of gaining them – all while the specter of job-replacing artificial intelligence spooks recent college grads.
Mr. Trump took steps on Monday to ease financial pain on a key constituency — farmers who face high costs due to inflation and trade wars. He unveiled a $12 billion bailout package, including $11 billion from the Department of Agriculture’s Farmer Bridge Assistance program.
The package aims to restore financial stability for growers while China resumes soybean purchases and the administration works to address high costs.
“They’re the backbone of our country,” Mr. Trump said of farmers, who formed a major bloc of political support for his presidential bids.
Mr. Trump spent the first several months of his presidency courting tech executives and foreign dignitaries and conducting high-wire peace and trade deals. His visit to his swing-state Pennsylvania is a return to the MAGA base that sent Mr. Trump, who promised to tackle “Bidenflation,” to the White House for a second term.
But Democrats flipped the script in the off-year November elections, sweeping key races in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City by focusing on affordability.
With midterm season looming, the GOP wants to regain the upper hand. Republicans are clinging to narrow control of both chambers, including a seven-seat House majority – though two seats are vacant and Democrat-leaning.
Pennsylvania has 17 House seats.
Some Republicans worry that Mr. Trump sent the wrong message when he recently downplayed Democrats’ cost-of-living mantra.
“The word affordability is a Democrat scam,” Mr. Trump said. “They say it, and then they go into the next subject, and everyone thinks, ‘Oh, they had lower prices.’ No, they had the worst inflation in the history of our country.”
The Consumer Price Index, a key measure of inflation, soared to 9% in 2022 during the Biden years and had dropped to 3% on an annual basis. That’s still above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Mr. Trump is frustrated by media coverage of the situation. He says the administration inherited “embedded inflation” from the Biden administration.
“What we are not going to do is say that Americans don’t know what they are feeling,” Mr. Bessent said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “We have been making a lot of gains.”
Mr. Trump points to reduced gas prices, lower mortgage rates, and cheaper eggs as proof that things are improving.
The White House on Monday cited Gas Buddy statistics that showed gasoline dropped below $3 per gallon in 37 states, resulting in a median U.S. price of $2.79.
“When gasoline comes down, everything sort of follows,” Mr. Trump said.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump is expected to highlight progress on prices and the GOP’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which extended his first-term tax cuts, increased tax deductions and eliminated taxes on tipped wages. It also incentivized domestic manufacturing through tax deductions.
Democrats contend the bill largely helped the wealthy while inducing a health care affordability crisis with a rollback of Obamacare and Medicaid health benefits.
“This isn’t just ignorance. It’s outright cruelty by the highest levels of the federal government,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said on X.
Democrats also argue that price pressures were self-inflicted when Mr. Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on dozens of trading partners and key sectors such as steel, cars and furniture.
Small businesses sued Mr. Trump in a case that’s reached the Supreme Court, saying the White House usurped Congress’s taxing powers with some of the tariffs.
They said new costs on foreign goods are hurting their bottom lines, and a range of industries have complained about higher equipment costs and the uncertainty around Mr. Trump’s trade plans.
“The president has a difficult selling job to do,” said Ross Baker, a politics professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “With Obamacare subsidies expiring, a perception that prices are increasing and residual effects from the first tariffs, he will be hard-pressed to offer credible good news.”
• Seth McLaughlin contributed to this report.
