Donald Trump is preparing a national public-appearance blitz amid concerns that he is ignoring the financial anxiety of tens of millions of Americans.
The president will appear in the key swing state of Pennsylvania on Tuesday to try to convince voters that his economic plans are working, with additional events expected this month and into the new year across the country, Axios reports.
The nationwide push comes as Trump faces mounting criticism that he is too focused on foreign policy during his second term and increasingly out of touch with how Americans are struggling in a cost-of-living crisis.
On Thursday, a devastating Politico poll found that nearly half (46 percent) of U.S. adults say the cost of living is the “worst they can ever remember it being,” including 37 percent of voters who supported Trump in 2024.
The survey also found that 56 percent of Americans said affordability is their top priority, with 46 percent blaming Trump specifically for their financial woes.
The backlash against the 79-year-old—who made lowering the cost of food one of his central 2024 campaign pledges—has contributed to record-low approval ratings and fears within the GOP that it could result in an electoral wipeout in next year’s midterms.
Trump has also taken the potentially disastrous stance of insisting that polls showing Americans are increasingly worried about the economy and their own finances are “fake” and a “hoax” pushed by Democrats.
He repeated this head-in-the-sand approach while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
“This whole thing is they use the word affordability. It’s a Democrat hoax. They’re the ones that drove the prices up, and all they do is say ‘affordability,’” Trump said during a lengthy tirade. “When they use the word affordability, they never say anything else. ‘This election is about affordability,’ and then they go into the next subject. It’s a con job.”
A late November Gallup survey—which shows Trump with a second-term low approval rating of 36 percent—suggests that concerns about affordability have “damaged Trump’s standing” with the American people.
Axios reports that he will use a string of national media appearances to “aggressively” push back against criticism over the rising cost of everyday essentials, with the White House believing the president is the best person to highlight the apparent economic progress he has enacted.
A White House spokesperson told the Daily Beast that Trump will use the tour to show how he and the administration “continue to focus on delivering on his Day One priority of ending Joe Biden’s inflation crisis.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of the high-profile Republicans who has accused Trump of abandoning his America First agenda and of ignoring issues affecting Americans. Trump’s own aides have also expressed concern that he’s not focused enough on domestic issues, while the president has repeatedly intervened in international matters while demanding that he be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize (even while threatening to attack Venezuela).
The national tour to push his economic proposals also arrived after the White House had been rattled by a New York Times report detailing that Trump’s public appearances in his second term have fallen by 39 percent compared to his first, amid concerns about the 79-year-old’s mental and physical health.
