Despite voters making it clear in elections and opinion polls that affordability and the cost of living are a top priority, President Donald Trump told Fox News on Monday night that the entire issue is merely a “con job.”
Trump made his comments during a friendly interview with supporter Laura Ingraham on her Fox News show “The Ingraham Angle.” Ingraham noted that the issue was top of mind for voters in last week’s elections and that prices of consumer staples like beef have increased.
Trump, without evidence, said the prices are “going to come down very shortly,” even though his tariff policies that have constrained food supplies remain in place. Then he spun his latest conspiracy theory.
“More than anything else it’s a con job by the Democrats,” Trump said. “They put out something ‘say today costs are up.’ They feed it to the anchors of ABC, CBS and NBC and a lot of others—CNN etc.”
This is utterly false and made up, like Trump’s racist conspiracies about former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate or allegations that jobs numbers are invented.
Trump’s dismissal of concerns about rising costs sounds even worse because Trump is a purported billionaire who has been busying himself lately with constructing a gold-tinted ballroom at the White House.
Exit polls conducted after this year’s elections showed that concerns about the economy and affordability were the biggest drivers of voter turnout. These were elections where Democratic candidates dominated Republicans in a sign of protest against Trump’s policies over the last year.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani made affordability a central tenet of his campaign.
Candidates like Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in New York City and Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger in Virginia made the issue of affordability central to their campaigns, and their lopsided victories proved that the focus was a winning one.
Trump has instead promoted policies like tariffs on international trade, which have led companies to pass the increased costs on to consumers. The Trump policies are projected to increase the costs for an array of items through the winter holidays. Trump has refused to back down on the issue and has instead given lip service to offering up tariff-based stimulus checks, but he doesn’t have the power to do this.
Concerns about economic conditions contributed to Democrats losing in the 2024 election. Now, Trump and Republicans already see their power eroding over the same issue. Trump can pretend the problem doesn’t exist, but voters have made it clear that they are going to be heard.
