President Donald Trump, after watching his Republican Party take a thorough thrashing from Democrats on Election Day, briefly appeared to be on the edge of learning a lesson.
Being Trump, he cast a common concept – affordability – as some unique insight he discovered that drove the success for Democratic candidates in New York, New Jersey, Virginia and other states.
But forget all that affordability talk now.
Trump’s thin-skinned narcissism swiftly squashed his short-lived revelation that American voters who reelected him in 2024, largely because of their concerns about the economy, are still deeply anxious about their cost of living right now.
That’s Trump’s first problem here. And it is exacerbated by his second problem – he refuses to admit there is a problem.
Trump, after pretending to discover the word “affordability,” then rejected the concept in a pair of dizzying and dishonest exchanges with journalists at the White House on Nov. 6 and Nov. 7.
“I don’t want to hear about the affordability,” Trump said during a meeting at the White House on Nov. 6.
If you didn’t catch that, then don’t worry. You’ll see the video over and over and over again in campaign ads from Democratic candidates seeking to oust Republican incumbents in the 2026 midterm elections. Complicating things for the president and his fellow Republicans is how casually and reflexively he lies about the state of our economy, and how easy it is to fact-check his claims to debunk them.
Trump says our grocery bills are fake news, just like basic math
Trump, in that Nov. 6 meeting, defended his administration’s attempts to resist a judge’s order to make full federal food assistance program payments, known as SNAP, to 42 million Americans, during the federal government shutdown.
That’s a bad look to start from, fighting to keep needy people hungry.
Trump, being Trump, then made it worse with a rapid-fire stream of dishonest claims.
First, he bragged that the price of Walmart’s pre-assembled Thanksgiving Dinner has been reduced by 25% this year, repeating a claim he made earlier that day in a social media post.
But social media users were quick to point out that Walmart has reduced the size of the meal from 21 items to 15 items and swapped out brand-name products for Walmart brands.
A reduction from 21 items to 15 items is a 28.6% decrease. So Walmart customers will be paying over 3 percentage points more for their Thanksgiving meal, to get less.
A journalist on Nov. 7 followed up on Trump’s Walmart claim, noting the reduction in size of the meal. He cried “fake news” rather than acknowledge the math, or the truth.
Trump on Nov. 6 also claimed “we have virtually no inflation” now. Anyone who shops for anything knows that’s not true. Inflation rose in September, with consumer prices increasing by 3% over the same time in 2024.
A day later, on Nov. 7, Trump insisted that inflation is “down now to 2%, and we’ll be maybe 1%.” His own administration tells a different story, but it’s one he can’t bear to hear.
Trump kept going on Nov. 6, insisting that “groceries are way down” in prices. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service in late September reported: “In 2025, prices for all food are predicted to increase 3.0 percent.”
Are you starting to sense a theme here?
Trump won’t talk about affordability? Democrats will, all the way to the midterms.
Prices are up, not down. And the president doesn’t want to hear it. And he really doesn’t want you to hear it, even as you live it.
A day after he made that claim about groceries, Trump insisted that the recent focus on “affordability” was a “con job” by Democrats.
Trump on Nov. 6 also claimed that “energy costs are way down,” and that “we’re getting close to $2 a gallon” for gasoline.
But that doesn’t reflect reality at the gas pump. On the same day, the American Automobile Association reported that the national average price for a gallon of gasoline was $3.084, down from $3.107 this time last year.
That’s a reduction of less than 1%. Not my idea of “way down.” And nowhere close to $2 per gallon.
But here’s how Trump framed gas prices on Nov. 7: “We are a little bit above $2 right now for gasoline. … We are the victors on affordability.”
A smart person would hold off on belting out “We Are The Champions” here. But Trump’s ego demands we all sing the chorus with him.
He’s not fooling anyone with this.
Trump’s approval rating hits new low
A CNN/SSRS poll released a day before the election showed Trump’s approval rating at 37%, the lowest mark of his second term, with 61% saying his policies have made America’s economy worse, not better.
An NBC News poll released Nov. 2 showed that 63% of Americans think Trump has fallen short on their expectations for how he handles the economy.
A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released on Election Day found that about 7 out of 10 Americans say they’re spending more for groceries this year. And 60% of them blame Trump for that.
Trump no longer wants to hear about affordability. Too bad.
The more he complains about it, the more Democrats will weaponize his own words. And his Republican allies in Congress will pay the price in next year’s midterms.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.
