Trump to Visit Palestinian Authority to Promote Economic Strategies Amid Affordability Issues
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The White House is turning up pressure on former President Joe Biden’s economic record as voters express displeasure over ongoing cost-of-living issues that President Donald Trump campaigned to reduce after his economic successes during his first term.
“Ending Joe Biden’s inflation and affordability crisis has been a day one priority for President Trump,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Fox News Digital on Monday morning when asked about the White House’s message on affordability.
“Every Trump administration official has played their part over the past year to achieve this priority, from rolling back costly regulations to reaching historic drug pricing deals – efforts that have cooled inflation and raised real wages,” he continued. “Much work remains to be done, but President Trump highlights the significant progress his administration has made and will continue to make in reversing Joe Biden’s economic disaster.”
The Trump administration faces a crisis over its economic message as Democrats increasingly and effectively rely on their “affordability” message that contributed to a string of election victories during the November off-season.
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The White House is turning up the pressure on former President Joe Biden’s economic record. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Americans’ sense of financial uncertainty comes after Trump boasted on the campaign trail that he would “quickly” lower prices upon his return to the Oval Office after Biden’s term, while administration officials said Trump’s economy in his second term was “booming” while taking credit for economic victories.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick even claimed a few months ago that Trump’s economy had recovered after the Biden administration’s inflationary spiral.
“The Trump economy is officially here,” Lutnick said on X in July, pointing to rising GDP and Trump’s tariff policies.
“Biden’s first quarter is behind us and growth is already accelerating,” Lutnick said on
Asked about past comments amid White House efforts to promote the president’s economic record, a White House official said Monday, “Lutnick is not the president.”
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed in July that the Trump economy had officially arrived. (Thierry Monassé/Getty Images)
The administration has repeatedly taken victory laps for its economic victories this year — while also lashing out at the Biden administration — including celebrating in recent months that “the economy is back on track under President Trump,” that there has been “explosive growth in the Trump economy,” while the president has stressed that his tariff policy has been a “huge success.”
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“President Trump’s ‘America First’ economic agenda has created a booming economy: jobs are up, unemployment is down, wages are rising, and inflation is dead. More than 139,000 good jobs were created in the private sector in May, all filled by American-born workers. Americans should continue to have confidence in President Trump, who continues to exceed expectations,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. in June.
Voters, however, indicated they felt no financial relief.
Trump is expected to travel Tuesday to Pennsylvania, a key battleground state that helped deliver his 2024 victory, to promote his administration’s economic policies and growth amid voters reporting financial anxiety.
The economy has been a cornerstone of Trump’s political tenure, including defending victories in his first administration — such as record unemployment and gasoline prices falling below $2 a gallon.
However, some 76% of voters said they had a negative view of the economy, compared to 67% who said the same in July, as well as the 70% who said the same at the end of Biden’s term, according to a Fox News national survey in November.
The survey found that voters overwhelmingly blamed Trump rather than Biden. About twice as many voters surveyed said Trump, rather than Biden, is responsible for the current economy, and three times as many voters said Trump’s economic policies had harmed them, matching their feelings in Biden’s final year in office.
Trump’s message on affordability itself has evolved in recent years, with his 2024 campaign promoting that he would “make America affordable again,” and the president later lamented in November that “affordability” should be a Republican-owned message, before also calling Democrats’ message on affordability a “scam” earlier in December.
“Just say it. Affordability. I inherited the worst inflation in history. There was no affordability. Nobody could afford anything. Prices were extremely high,” Trump said at his Cabinet meeting in December.
“But the word affordability is a Democratic scam,” Trump continued.
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Today, the White House is emphasizing that the Biden economy continues to strangle American wallets and that the Trump administration is working to right the ship.
President Donald Trump has turned up pressure on former President Joe Biden’s economic record during his time in office. (AP/Evan Vucci)
The White House told Fox Digital that Trump has “consistently – and rightly – highlighted how Joe Biden has unleashed a generational economic disaster” since his election campaign.
“This undeniable fact hasn’t stopped Democrats from shamelessly trying to emphasize the affordability crisis they created in the first place,” Desai said. “With inflation slowing and trillions in investment flowing in, President Trump’s agenda is effectively delivering the booming economy that Americans have enjoyed during his first term – and he and the administration will continue to highlight the work we are doing to make it happen.”
A White House official added that the tax cuts would be felt by Americans as the new year begins.
“We inherited a mess,” Trump said during a roundtable discussion Monday. “Affordability. But you can call it affordability or whatever you want, but the Democrats caused the affordability problem, and we’re the ones who are fixing it. So it’s a very simple statement. And they caused it and we’re fixing it.”
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, U.S., Friday, October 10, 2025, to announce an agreement with AstraZeneca Plc to reduce consumer prices of some of the company’s drugs. (Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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The Biden administration has overseen the highest inflation to rock the country in 40 years, 30-year mortgage rates rising from about 3% in 2021 to about 7 to 8% in 2023, and the biggest interest rate hike in decades.
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In the 2024 federal election, voters named the economy as their top issue by far. Americans flooded the polls a year ago with their wallets in mind, supporting Trump in the polls as the majority of voters said they feared they would not be able to afford food, healthcare, housing and gas for their cars. Fox News Voter Analysis the data showed.
