Transcript
A (0:05)
Good morning. It's Tuesday, December 9th. I'm Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News today. On today's show, how Russia is making sure it never runs out of soldiers, the latest twist in the deal to buy Warner Brothers, and why this year just keeps getting worse for the Louvre museum.
A (0:34)
But first, President Trump is set to visit Pennsylvania, a key swing state, today to deliver a speech focused on pricing and affordability. Sounds like campaign era deja vu, right? While on the trail last year, Trump spent a lot of time in states like Pennsylvania hammering the Biden administration for failing to address inflation. The high cost of living was a top concern for many Americans. That's still true today. Now, as that economic unease has pers noted, it's Trump who has had to make the case that he's hearing those concerns and acting on them. Since taking office, the Trump administration has largely focused on tariffs, which most economists agree generally raise consumer prices, immigration, foreign policy, and other issues. In a Cabinet meeting last week, while defending the actions that his administration has taken so far, Trump referred to the use of the term affordability by Democrats as a con job.
B (1:28)
You know, there's this fake narrative that the Democrats talk about affordability. They just say the word. It doesn't mean anything to anybody. Just say it. Affordability. I inherited the worst inflation in history. There was no affordability. Nobody could afford anything.
A (1:43)
Trump has largely blamed the prior administration for the current economic conditions. But behind closed doors, some are advising the president to take a different approach. Josh Dawsey is a political investigative reporter at the Wall Street Journal who told us what he's been hearing.
C (1:59)
So what they're trying to do is to get the president to have more empathetic messaging to say, look, we're doing everything we can on the economy. We're stabilizing the economy, but we understand this is still too high, and here's what we're doing to work on it. And we get you, we see you, we feel you.
A (2:18)
The administration has taken some actions to ease cost of living concerns, including rolling back some tariffs on grocery goods like Brazilian coffee and beef, a plan to cut the price of weight loss drugs, and rolling back fuel efficiency rules to make cars more affordable. Just yesterday, the White House unveiled a plan to provide billions in aid to farmers impacted by tariff policy. But recent polls suggest some voters think more can be done. A recent Washington Post poll found that 62% of Americans disapproved of Trump's economic performance so far. And another poll commissioned by Politico found that many people who voted for Trump say that affordability remains their top concern and that Trump isn't doing enough to address it.