Advisers Urge Trump to Shift Focus to Prices

BY JOSH DAWSEY AND MERIDITH MCGRAW

WASHINGTON—Just before President Trump left the White House for Thanksgiving, top aides met with him in his private dining room to discuss inflation and the economy in hopes he would calibrate his message on affordability.

In another meeting last month, this time in the Oval Office, aides presented Trump with surveys from one of the president’s own pollsters detailing voters’ concerns about the cost of living. His team has begun showing him social-media posts that illustrate how Americans view the economy.

Top aides have taken turns talking to their boss about his economic messaging—and the need to emphasize what voters are feeling. Almost every senior White House official is involved in the effort.

It is part of an across-the-White House bid to change Trump’s messaging on the economy, as many advisers worry that voters’ concerns about high prices are dragging down his presidency and hurting Republicans, according to people familiar with the matter. In conversations in recent weeks, Trump’s advisers have encouraged the president to talk more about what the administration is doing to increase wages, lower the cost of housing and reduce inflation, the people said.

So far, Trump has largely avoided any “I feel your pain” messaging, telling aides that the economy is strong. And he has dismissed Washington’s focus on affordability as a trap set by Democrats intent on papering over the administration’s economic achievements. In many of the private conversations, the people said, Trump has argued that former President Joe Biden was responsible for inflation, not him.

“There is this fake narrative Democrats talk about. Afford--ability. They just say the word. It doesn’t mean anything to anybody,” Trump said during a meeting with his cabinet secretaries at the White House this past week. “The word ‘affordability’ is a con job by the Democrats.”

The behind-the-scenes effort to press Trump to talk about affordability has been unfolding for weeks, and it started before Republicans faced greater-thanexpected losses in last month’s elections, the people said.

“Everyone’s talking about the a-word these days. Afford--ability is a huge issue for the White House,” said Stephen Moore, an outside adviser to Trump on the economy. “His numbers on the economy aren’t where they should be. I believe it’s a messaging problem.”

Economic growth by its broadest measure has been solid since Trump took office, but job growth has been tepid and the unemployment rate has edged up. Inflation has re-mained around 3%. In surveys, consumers have signaled deep concern about costs and scarcer job opportunities.

White House aides are reorienting some of Trump’s public events to focus on costs. They are planning economy-focused speeches around the country in early 2026, the people said, and they are making plans to shift to domestic matters after Trump spent some of his first 10 months in office on foreign policy. Republicans fear big losses in the midterms if perception of the economy doesn’t improve, administration officials and others close to Trump said.

The president talked up his administration’s efforts to tackle inflation during a speech to McDonald’s franchise owners and suppliers last month, and this past week during the cabinet meeting acknowledged more work needed to be done on inflation.

On Saturday, Trump signed an executive order that establishes a new government task force to investigate whether anticompetitive behavior in the food industry is contributing to high grocery prices.

“It is a fact the Biden administration created the worst inflation crisis in a generation; and President Trump and his entire administration have been working hard to actually fix it through tax cuts, deregulation and driving down energy prices,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. Trump won the 2024 election in part because of voter bitterness about Biden’s handling of the economy and concerns about inflation.

Upon taking office, the president pivoted to immigration, foreign policy and other issues. “I talked about inflation too, but you know how many times can you say that an apple has doubled in cost?” he said on Inauguration Day, arguing that immigration was a bigger motivator for voters than prices.

Trump is traveling to northeastern Pennsylvania this week for a speech that a White House official said would focus on the administration’s plans to end what the president’s aides call an inflation crisis set in motion by Biden.

The president has at times been more animated by his peacemaking efforts abroad and his plans to build a sprawling ballroom on the White House complex than by high costs, according to White House officials. Some allies have encouraged the White House to focus less on issues abroad and turn their gaze back to the U.S., where Trump’s support on the economy has sagged in polling.

In private, White House aides say they are concerned about falling victim to the same political pitfalls that bedeviled Biden, who at times struggled to sell a positive message on the economy without sounding dismissive of voters’ angst on cost-of-living issues.