President Trump launched his new affordability-focused roadshow Tuesday in northeastern Pennsylvania — the first stop on a high-stakes messaging blitz meant to steady the White House after Republicans suffered a bruising off-year election cycle in New Jersey, Virginia and New York City.
“I have no higher priority than making America affordable again. That’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “And again, [Democrats] caused the high prices, and we’re bringing them down. It’s a simple message.”
Touting his accomplishments, Trump pointed to his tariff strategy, which he claimed was “bringing us hundreds of billions of dollars” as he brushed off criticism from naysayers.
“I’d say my favorite word is the word tariff. I love it more than any other word in the dictionary,” he said. “And the fake news said: ‘that’s terrible.’”
He went on to highlight his efforts to bring energy prices down with “the greatest amount of drilling, the greatest amount of fuel being produced right now in our country.”
“When that happens, those prices come down. That’s why you’re seeing oil per barrel coming down nicely, very nicely,” he said. “We don’t want to go so rapidly, because we want the people that produce it to keep producing it, but they’re doing good, but it’s amazing.”
“But when energy comes down, your other prices come down,” he added.
The tour comes after a rough patch for the GOP, with significant losses in New Jersey, Virginia, and New York City in November, which has been attributed by Democrats and Republicans to the “affordability crisis.”
As Trump spoke, Democrat Eileen Higgins defeated a Trump-backed Republican to become the next mayor of Miami — ending Democrats’ nearly 30-year losing streak in the Florida destination.
This year’s elections saw an erosion of gains Trump made in 2024 in key districts, including among Hispanic and Latino voters –handing Democrats fresh openings heading into the 2026 midterms.
Now, the president is recalibrating, hoping to refocus voters on the economy — an issue that helped him secure the White House last year, even as polls show growing skepticism in 2025.
It comes after White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in a video published Monday said Trump is “going to campaign like it’s 2024 again” for next year’s midterm elections, using his pizzazz on the campaign trail to help Republicans keep the House and Senate the same way he did in presidential election years.
“Typically in the midterms, it’s not about who’s sitting at the White House. You localize the election, and you keep the federal officials out of it,” Wiles told “The Mom View” by conservative organization Moms for America. “We’re actually going to turn that on its head, and put him on the ballot, because so many of those low propensity voters are Trump voters.”
In his speech, Trump touted lower gas prices and trumpeted his administration’s economic wins on energy, while promising prosperity under his trade policies.
“You’re going to see what happens over the next two years. It’s like a miracle taking place,” Trump said.
The White House sees the event as a reset — the beginning of a sustained push to convince voters that Trump’s aggressive trade policies and tax-cut plans are priming the country for long-term prosperity.
But recent data suggests the task may be tougher than Trumpworld wants to admit.
Nearly half of registered voters said after the elections that Trump’s economic policies — including his ongoing trade war with China and other major partners — are doing more harm than good, according to a November Fox News survey.
Democrats smell an opening and have launched their own counteroffensive with a pocketbook-focused campaign aimed at tying Trump to rising costs and widening inequality.
Trump has called the affordability message a “con job” from a party that presided over 9.1% inflation under former President Joe Biden.
On Tuesday, he again blamed his predecessor for the nation’s economic woes.
“When [former President Joe] Biden and congressional Democrats had power, they blew up our economy, sent prices soaring,” he said. “… Now Democrats in Congress want to take us straight back to the Bidenomics.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attempted to bat down concerns Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation”, insisting the economy is on “strong footing.”
“We’re going to finish the year, despite the [Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer] shutdown, with 3% real GDP growth,” he said. The US Bureau of Economic Analysis will release its full third-quarter report Dec. 23.
“The economy has been better than we thought. We’ve had 4% GDP growth in a couple of quarters,” Bessent added.
The latest inflation report, delayed more than a month due to the shutdown, showed consumer prices up about 3% from September 2024 to September 2025.
