However, his rhetoric has apparently not placated the public, as voters in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District elected Republican Matt Van Epps with a margin of victory over Democrat Aftyn Behn, who was backed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), of only nine percentage points. 

Trump won Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District a year ago in the 2024 election by 22 percentage points.

The “message” from the elections is that the public is “fed up with the soaring cost of living and Washington’s failure to take it seriously,” according to Republican strategist Cesar Conda.

“For President Trump and Republicans, the implications are urgent,” Conda told the Washington Examiner. “Voters feel financially squeezed, believe Washington is out of touch, and are demanding action.”

To that end, and despite Trump’s complaints, the president has addressed affordability concerns twice this week, including on Wednesday with an announcement that he is repealing “ridiculously burdensome, horrible” fuel economy standards introduced last year by former President Joe Biden. 

The White House contended that Biden’s regulations, including requiring passenger cars and light trucks to have a fuel efficiency of about 50 mpg by 2031, increased the cost of a new vehicle by almost $1,000, with Trump’s response saving Americans $109 billion.

“My administration has taken historic action to lower costs for American consumers, protect American auto jobs, and make buying a car much more affordable for countless American families — and also safer,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

The previous day in the nearby Roosevelt Room, Trump was accompanied by Michael and Susan Dell to announce the couple’s unprecedented donation of $6.25 billion to fund investment accounts for approximately 25 million American children ineligible for the president’s Trump accounts program, simultaneously promoting those tax-deferred savings accounts for U.S. citizen children with a valid Social Security number. 

Starting next July, to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the parent or guardian of eligible children born between 2025 and 2028 may accept a one-time $1,000 contribution from the Treasury into their child’s account. 

Thanks to the Dells, children under the age of 11 who were born before 2025 and live in ZIP codes with a median income of $150,000 or less will receive $250.

“Trump accounts will be the first, I guess you could say, real trust funds for every American child, allowing family members, employers, corporations, and generous donors to contribute money that will be invested and grow over the course of a child’s life to be used for their benefit after they turn 18,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.

At the same time, although the Trump accounts and supplemental Dell program will be life-changing for their recipients, those recipients will not be able to withdraw from their accounts until they turn 18, at which point half of the funds become available. At age 30, the full amount of the funds becomes usable for any purpose. 

Similarly, members of the public do not purchase a car every day. For example, a poll conducted this year by insurance company The Zebra found that the plurality of car owners have owned their vehicle for six years or less.

Trump, during a two-hour-long Cabinet meeting earlier Tuesday, downplayed speculation that the public is becoming impatient with his reforms.

“I think they’re getting fake news from guys like you,” he told Fox Business Network’s Ed Lawrence. “Affordability is a hoax that was started by Democrats.”

Trump, a day later, during his fuel efficiency announcement, reiterated the same argument, asserting Democrats were “the ones that drove the prices up.”

“We inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country,” he told reporters. “Now our prices are coming down, and they’re coming down for cars, and they’re coming down.”

Regardless, Democrats, including potential 2028 presidential candidate Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), have seized on Trump’s comments after causing this year’s historically long federal government shutdown over the similar issue of rising Obamacare healthcare insurance premiums, in addition to Govs.-elect Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), who won their elections last month after campaigning on affordability concerns, such as the cost of electricity. 

“Trump says affordability is a hoax,” Gallego wrote on social media. “Tell that to the families staring at electric bills that look like mortgage payments.”

Democrats’ talking points appear to be resonating with the public, with Trump’s average approval rating regarding inflation at a net negative 28 percentage points, at least according to RealClearPolitics.

Trump has taken other actions related to affordability, including exempting coffee, bananas, and beef from his tariffs last month, despite the president and the White House having remained adamant that the duties would not affect prices.

Trump reducing tariffs on “very visible” items will not change the overall cost of living index “much,” according to American Enterprise Institute economic senior fellow Desmond Lachman.

“When you go to the shops, you might find that bananas are cheaper or coffee is cheaper, and that might make you feel a bit better,” Lachman told the Washington Examiner. “But I think that he’s just working really at the margin.”

Instead, Conda, the Republican strategist, recommended that Trump utilize the budgetary parliamentary process called reconciliation, which would permit the president and Republicans to pass legislation with respect to affordability through Congress with a simple majority in the Senate, as they did with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“Congress should move swiftly to pass a second reconciliation bill squarely focused on lowering costs for working Americans,” the founding partner of Navigators Global, LLC said. “Such a bill could eliminate the capital gains tax on home sales to increase housing supply, suspend the payroll tax to put more money in people’s pockets, and enact conservative health care reform.”

Republican Study Committee chairman Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) has proposed rolling back the capital gains tax on primary home sales “to expand the housing supply, convert underused federal buildings to residential use and promote mortgage portability so families aren’t trapped by rising rates.”

Nevertheless, independent political analyst Daniel Schnur, who was communications director of the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign, claimed Trump and his advisers “know that they can’t win an argument on inflation and affordability, so they will be looking for opportunities to remind voters about his work on other issues.” 

“That means a lot of immigration, but an announcement like this one allows them to broaden the argument,” Schnur told the Washington Examiner of the fuel efficiency event.

TRUMP PROMOTES KIDS’ INVESTMENT ACCOUNTS WITH MIDTERM ELECTIONS ON THE HORIZON

Crackdown on immigration has been a cornerstone of Trump’s second-term agenda, with the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday launching Operation Catahoula Crunch, a federal crackdown targeting illegal immigrants in New Orleans after earlier missions in Los Angeles, Chicago, Memphis, Tennessee, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

The New Orleans operation started the same day as counterpart missions in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, targeting illegal Somali immigrants after Trump described members of the community as “garbage,” insisting that they should “go back to where they came from” following charges being brought against some of them for allegedly defrauding the state’s public assistance programs, including a $250 million scheme with COVID-19 pandemic funds.