Trump's Trials - Affordability 'hoax'? Public isn't buying Trump's message

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

President Trump weaved through topics at a rally in Pennsylvania Tuesday night, calling affordability a Democratic "hoax" and sharing his grievances about immigrants. NPR's Tamara Keith reports. And NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with political consultant Frank Luntz about Trump's message.Please share your feedback on the show by filling out this quick survey. As a token of our appreciation, three respondents will be randomly selected to receive a $25 gift card.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Layla Fawndt. Good morning. President Trump told a rally crowd in Pennsylvania Tuesday night that he has no higher priority than making America affordable again. They cause the high prices and we're bringing them down. It's a simple message. If I had one message tonight, you know, this is being covered like all over the world. This is crazy because I haven't made a speech in a little while. You know, when you win, you say, oh, I can now rest. He talked about a whole lot of other things, too. And NPR Senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith is here to help us decipher what the president had to say. Good morning, Tam. Good morning. So did the president have some new message or some policy prescriptions for Americans who are upset about the high cost of living?

The banners on the stage said lower prices, bigger paychecks. And that was the message, in essence. Trump insists prices are coming down and brought up on the stage a handful of people who stand to benefit from the tax cuts he signed into law earlier this year. There were no new policies and not a lot of new material, but if you go to see the village people, you'd be disappointed not to hear YMCA. So Trump spent much of this 90-minute speech. going through the greatest hits, talking about how members of his cabinet are straight out of central casting, denigrating Somali immigrants, weaving all over the place, joking about how it would be boring if he stuck to the teleprompter and occasionally making it back to the economy.

Lower prices, bigger paychecks. We're getting inflation. We're crushing it. And you're getting much higher wages. I mean, the only thing that it's really going up, up big? It's called the stock market and your 401k's. It's going on. Okay, that might be true. Stock values are up, but a lot of people actually more than a third of Americans don't have money in the stock market. Yeah, and as our friends at Marketplace always say, the stock market is not the economy. A recent Fox News poll found three quarters of voters view the economy negatively, and two to one, they blame Trump for the current economy rather than former President Biden. The economy used to be Trump's strength, but at the moment, it's a major weakness. And Democrats are

certainly making the most of it. Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro posted on social media that Trump spent his speech, quote, telling Pennsylvanians not to believe what they can see with their own two eyes, the skyrocketing cost of living and rising prices at the grocery store. So how is the president squaring the sour mood that voters are in with his pitch that he has ushered in a golden age for this country? He's not really. Take this from an interview he did this week with Politico's Dasha Burns. I wonder what grade you would give. A plus. A plus. A plus. Yeah, A plus, plus, plus, plus. You know, Trump typically has strong instincts for appealing to his base, but he does risk looking out of touch here. And how does he respond when confronted with those concerns?

Last night, yet again, he mocked the preoccupation with affordability. They have a new word. They always have a hoax. The new word is affordability. He says that he inherited a mess. In other words, don't blame me. Blame the former guy. And he says things are already cheaper. In particular, he talks a lot about gas prices. According to Gas Buddy, prices are down about eight cents on average a gallon from a year ago. But that's not really enough savings to make up for higher grocery prices and utility bills and the health care costs. That is. NPS Tamara Keith, Tam, Tam, thank you. You're welcome. For more on President Trump's efforts to both downplay affordability concerns and blame the Biden administration for the cost of living, we're joined by political consultant and pollster Frank Luntz to break down what's behind the rhetoric. Good morning, Frank, and thanks for being back on the program. Thanks for having me, and I do want to focus on what Tamara just said, lower prices, bigger paychecks. The issue for him, the challenge, is that he does look out of touch if he says,

saying that affordability is, in his words, a hoax. Yeah. The American people do believe that they're paying more, and the core elements, and you can call this F-squared, H-squared, food and fuel, housing and health care. The public believes that, and now it's almost half the public, struggles, paycheck to paycheck. And when they see the president saying that prices are coming down, it may be be true. I'm not going to argue over the details, but I will argue over the perceptions. And when you talk about affordability, it is all perception. The greatest danger is if you tell people that

Happy Days are here again, and it's 1929. You know, you mentioned that he keeps saying affordability is just a democratic hoax. Why is this such a difficult issue for Trump to own? Because he owned it against Joe Biden just a year ago. This is the reason why he was able to defeat President Biden is because the public thought that the former president didn't do enough to bring prices down. And the Trump campaign hammered him day after day, effectively, saying you're paying too much and you're getting too little. How will this impact Republicans heading into next year's midterms? Well, here's the thing. There's actually time to fix this that people are not making decisions over who they're going to vote for in November of 2026, in December of

2025. And the key date for me is Labor Day. Around Labor Day, the public makes a decision, has this administration, has the people in charge been effective and efficient and accountable? Do they have a track record of meaningful, measurable success? That decision will not happen for another nine months. But what's critical for the president, if I were advising, him, which I don't. But if I were advising him, I would lean into this because this is what the public believes. And you can't tell them something that they don't feel at the pump, that they don't feel at the cash register. And particularly, the next issue, insurance, health insurance, are prices going up. If I were a Republican strategist, which I used to be, I'd be telling them that

that is the issue that could cost you the majority. Well, it seems like so far Trump has taken no accountability for any issues around affordability, either blaming the Biden administration or saying it's completely made up. Well, again, I don't want to focus on policy. I focus on the language because that's my profession. But it is a legitimate attack to say that inflation was much higher, which is much more significant under Joe Biden, and that the country continued to spend because of COVID months or even years after it should have. That said, it's now a year since the election and the public does expect this administration to take charge. At a certain point, they will not accept the blame game. He may be responsible, but you, President Trump,

you promise to fix it. Are you doing it? And how is that showing up in the polls? I mean, how is this messaging resonating with Americans? Well, I don't think it's, And this is the good news for the Republicans is that the Democrats aren't liked either. And this is the bad news for America that both political parties are failing. Both political parties aren't offering the results and the success that they have promised. And so the public is starting to look at this and say, to heck with all of you. You've made promises you cannot keep. I don't trust you anymore.

But because the Republicans are in charge, they're the ones that pay the price. They're the ones that have to deliver. So in the end, the blame game may work today in December of 2025. It will not work November of 26. Do you see affordability right now as a winning message for the Democrats? I mean, we saw that play big in the New York City mayor election. Absolutely, because it's a day-to-day issue. It's not really ideological.

People are generally suffering. And when you're living, and I don't use the word blue collar, I don't talk about middle class. I talk about paycheck to paycheck, because that's how people live, and that paycheck to paycheck voter is annoyed. Democrats are coming out to the polls. Republicans are staying home, and if that continues, that spells bad news for the Republicans. But I end this interview as I began. It is not too late. The election is still 10 months away. Things can be very different November than they are right now. Frank Luntz is a political consultant and pollster. Thank you so much for your time and your insights.

It's an honor. Thank you. Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news

with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.

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