Trump and "affordability"

John T. Bennett,  Roll Call-    Donald Trump and Republicans have an affordability problem, even as the president appeared reluctant Tuesday night to admit it.

After spending most of his second term at the White House, overseas or at his south Florida resorts, Trump jetted to Monroe County in Pennsylvania Tuesday — one of the most competitive counties in the must-win battleground state — to talk stubbornly high prices.

But the populist GOP president did not spell out a clear plan to provide Americans relief at the cash register, gas pump or ticket counter. Instead, he echoed some of his aides by promising major economic improvement in the new year, touting his tariffs and blaming his predecessor for higher costs.

“You’re going to see what happens over the next two years. It’s like a miracle is taking place. But we’ve taken in hundreds of billions of dollars, really trillions,” said Trump, who was accompanied on Air Force One by Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Dave McCormick. “And if you add to that, all of the companies that are pouring their money to building right now, building plants in Pennsylvania and many other states, auto plants, AI plants, plants of every type, which we would have never had if we didn’t put the tariffs on.”

A Harvard-Harris survey released this week showed 57 percent of respondents believe the president is losing his fight with inflation. The same Harvard-Harris poll found inflation was most respondents’ (47 percent) top issue by a wide margin over “restoring basic American values of merit” at 13 percent and immigration at 11 percent. That survey also found 56 percent said Trump’s policies have been harming the economy, against 44 percent who replied helping — with 67 percent of independents going with harming.