POLITICS: Affordability is an urgent and burning issue, Mr President — Americans want action

Asked why people are worried about the economy and an affordability crisis, the president first said it was fake news.

“The polling data has been wrong all along,” he said.

Then he bragged that the GDP numbers looked good, and the Dow was hitting record highs. “We have the strongest economy in the world . . . Look at the response of the markets. Overwhelmingly positive.”

In short, “No president’s had the run we’ve had in terms of creating jobs and bringing down inflation.” The real problem, he said, is that Democrats haven’t done proper messaging to get the word out about his accomplishments.

That was Joe Biden talking to CNN in May of 2024.

Sounding like Joe

But you’d be forgiven for thinking it was President Trump, who has repeated many of the same talking points these past few days.

On “60 Minutes,” Trump said, “We are building jobs at a level that nobody’s ever seen before. . . . By the way, the stock market just hit — perfect timing for your show — just hit an all-time high.”

The interviewer noted that not everyone is invested in the stock market, and said “they’ve seen their grocery prices go up, ­inflation . . .”

Trump bristled. “No, you’re wrong. They went up under Biden. Right now they’re going down.”

Speaking later to Bret Baier on Fox News, Trump again dismissed the struggles of regular Americans.

“We’ve got prices way down . . . I think they are coming down, but they are down already. I think the biggest problem is Republicans don’t talk about it. They don’t talk about the word affordability and the Democrats lie about it.”

Biden is absolutely to blame for the world we live in now. His profligate spending fueled record inflation that still hurts American consumers.

But Trump campaigned on making life more affordable. ­Inflation may have been tamed to 2%-3%, which is positive, yet prices aren’t going down as he says — and probably never will.

So how does Trump fulfill his promises? With the growth-friendly policies he’s already pursued, by deregulation and tax cuts. Making sure wages rise, and people have more money in their pockets.

Don’t double down

What Trump shouldn’t do is double down on his obsession with tariffs.

Tariffs can be a tool for fairer trade, when targeted at particular industries and particular countries. But by introducing across-the-board tariffs, Trump increased the cost of almost ­everything.

He knows this. That’s why when Walmart said it was going to raise its prices in the spring, Trump insisted they should “EAT THE TARIFFS.”

Retailers have not eaten the tariffs, at least not all of them.

Companies don’t like to advertise how much prices have jumped, but a new study from analyst firm DataWeave finds that Amazon prices are up 13.8% this year, Target’s are up 5.5% and Walmart’s are up 5.3%.

By denying that reality, Trump is making the same mistake as his archnemesis, Lyin’ Biden.

Trump’s Truth Social post on Thursday suggested that higher costs are all in our heads, that “the Democrats ‘affordability’ issue is DEAD! STOP LYING!!!”

Americans didn’t appreciate being lied to by Biden and Democrats, and the party paid for it at the ballot box. But Americans also won’t appreciate being called liars for what their own eyes — and their own wallets — are telling them.

Don’t deny things are tough, Mr. President. Take another look at some of your economic policies and help make things better.