The Truth with Lisa Boothe: Affordability Crisis Explained: Inflation, Housing Costs, Immigration, and the Real Economy Impacting Americans

Summary

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The Truth with Lisa Boothe: Affordability Crisis Explained: Inflation, Housing Costs, Immigration, and the Real Economy Impacting Americans

Podcast: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Date: December 9, 2025
Host: Lisa Boothe
Guest: EJ Antoni, Chief Economist at The Heritage Foundation

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the ongoing affordability crisis affecting Americans, covering topics like inflation, housing costs, immigration’s role in the economy, and the impact of government policy. Lisa Boothe and EJ Antoni critically examine how economic pressures—from spiking home prices to the effects of deregulation and tariffs—are shaping voter sentiment and daily life. They discuss generational struggles, the role of recent policy, and the path forward, offering candid reflections and sharp analogies to explain the real impact on working Americans.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

I. The Affordability Crisis: Is the Narrative Catching Up to Reality?

• Background: Lisa and EJ agree that affordability is now central to the national conversation, though it has been a pressing issue for several years.
• Political Messaging:
  • EJ points out the shift in political and media attention, claiming that concern over affordability has only become prominent now that it’s politically expedient.
  • Quote: "It's because they think now it's politically profitable for them to do so, whereas before it, it obviously wasn't." (EJ Antoni, 04:06)
• Trump Administration Messaging:
  • There's concern over conflating media “hoaxes” with the real pain Americans face due to costs.
  • "[Trump’s] messaging should make clear the crisis is real, even if Democratic talking points are misleading." (Lisa Boothe, 08:25)
• Energy Prices as a Win:
  • Lowered gas prices are highlighted as a tangible benefit, impacting delivery costs and everyday shopping.
  • "Bringing down these energy prices... that's going to put downward pressure on prices throughout the economy because all of those transportation costs are a cost that a business has to pass on to the consumer." (EJ Antoni, 06:44)

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II. Economic Turnaround: Time and Patience

• Lagging Effects of Policy:
  • It takes time to undo previous economic policies, and Americans’ impatience is justified due to prolonged suffering.
  • "It took 18 months for the inflation to really kick in... So even if Trump started on day one with the regulatory changes... you couldn't expect that to have an instantaneous effect." (EJ Antoni, 09:13)
• Voter Sentiment:
  • Dismissing concerns or telling voters to “calm down” backfires—people want empathy and acknowledgment.
  • "Telling them, like, 'you're fine, calm down,' is just going to enrage voters when they want to feel heard and understood that they're struggling." (Lisa Booth, 08:25)

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III. Analogy Watch: Bidenomics as Alcoholism

• Economic Addiction Analogy:
  • EJ likens Biden-era spending to alcoholism—a series of fiscal “binges” followed by a painful but necessary recovery.
  • "Every time the economy started to sober up and things started to look bad, they just gave it another shot of whiskey, another shot of spending... what we're seeing this year is the painful sobering up." (EJ Antoni, 12:16)
• Short-Term Pain, Long-Term Gain:
  • The current administration is attempting to "sober up" the economy, a process that feels painful but is necessary for lasting health.

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IV. Tariffs, Trade, and Presidential Ownership of the Economy

• Tariffs and Public Perceptions:
  • Major policy changes, especially tariffs, make voters more likely to blame current disruptions (and credit future gains) on the seated administration.
• Investment Incentives:
  • Short-term pain from tariffs is intended to spur long-term growth (reshoring manufacturing, new investments).
  • Over $10 trillion in investment promised over coming years hinges on maintaining course.
• Quote:
  • "The more changes, especially radical changes that the President makes, the more people are going to associate the economy with him and with his actions." (EJ Antoni, 17:37)

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V. Why Are Americans Living Paycheck to Paycheck?

• Generational Shifts:
  • Millennials were criticized for spending habits, but Gen Z is seen as more financially conservative.
  • Now, even those with good habits struggle: essentials (housing, insurance, transportation) surpass incomes.
  • "Among Gen Z, it's something like over half of them are either living with their parents or living with some other family member or they're living with a group of friends... they can't afford to make it on their own and that's not their fault." (EJ Antoni, 22:17)
• Historical Comparison:
  • Current rates of young adults living at home are the highest since the Great Depression.

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VI. Comparing Generations: Is Today Harder Than Before?

• Cost of Living Metrics:
  • Homeownership costs have doubled compared to just a few years ago; inflation outpaces wage growth.
  • Past generations had higher interest rates but lower ratios of home price to salary, making affordability better.
  • "The bare necessities here have gotten astronomically expensive." (EJ Antoni, 25:44)
• Political Impact:
  • Economic stress is pushing young people towards political extremes, favoring candidates who acknowledge the severity of the crisis.

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VII. Immigration’s Impact on Housing and Economics

• Explosive Housing Demand:
  • Over 10 million immigrants in recent years have significantly increased demand for housing, raising prices and aggravating supply issues.
  • "When you import the population of New Jersey... don't tell me that's not going to have an effect on home prices. It most certainly will." (EJ Antoni, 27:09)
• Public Services and Economics:
  • Immigrants’ use of public services strains resources further, and deportations would reduce both demand (lowering prices) and government costs.
  • "[Immigrants] are not all here working. And removing them removes all of the demand that they've been placing on... public services." (EJ Antoni, 33:30)

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VIII. Are Things Improving? The State of Inflation and the 2026 Midterms

• Has Inflation Improved?
  • There has been some progress: prices aren’t rising as quickly, energy and certain food prices are down, and deregulation/tax cuts are expected to help.
  • "At the end of the day, we have made some progress. I don't think we've made enough progress though. There's a lot more to be done." (EJ Antoni, 31:47)
• Midterm Predictions:
  • Optimism that economic relief (from immigration enforcement, deregulation, energy policy) will be visible by the 2026 elections.
  • "I think [the economy] is going to be in a different place heading into the midterms." (EJ Antoni, 32:36)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "The monthly mortgage payment on a median price home literally doubled under the Biden administration." (EJ Antoni, 04:44)
• "If you're fighting with your partner... and like someone's like, 'oh, like, calm down'... telling them, like, 'you're fine, calm down,' is just going to enrage voters." (Lisa Boothe, 08:25)
• “Every time the economy started to sober up... they just gave it another shot of whiskey, another shot of spending to try to keep the buzz going, as it were.” (EJ Antoni, 12:18)
• "People want to feel heard and understood and that they’re struggling." (Lisa Booth, 08:28)
• "Over $10 trillion that have been promised in investment in the coming years. That’s huge." (EJ Antoni, 19:32)
• "Among Gen Z, it’s something like over half... can’t afford to make it on their own and that’s not their fault." (EJ Antoni, 23:15)
• "When you import the population of New Jersey... don't tell me that's not going to have an effect on home prices." (EJ Antoni, 27:09)

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Important Timestamps

• [02:35] Introduction of affordability crisis theme
• [04:44] Differentiating messaging vs. real economic suffering
• [06:44] Impact of lower gas and energy prices
• [09:00] Why relief is not instant for Americans
• [12:14] “Bidenomics as alcoholism” analogy
• [17:37] Tariffs, “ownership” of economic disruption
• [20:59] Discussion on generational financial struggles
• [24:08] Are things harder for Gen Z than prior generations?
• [27:00] Immigration’s impact on housing supply and demand
• [30:54] Has inflation actually improved?
• [32:36] Economic outlook ahead of 2026 midterms

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Summary & Takeaways

The episode gives a sobering yet clear-eyed look at the intersection of economics and politics in today’s America. Lisa Boothe and EJ Antoni place the current affordability crisis at the center of election-year arguments, providing practical insight, colorful analogies, and trenchant criticism of messaging on both sides. They stress that while some improvements have been made under Trump’s new term—especially regarding energy and inflation—real, everyday pressure on Americans is still substantial and will require more time and further policy intervention to resolve. Immigration, generational challenges, and the need for authentic communication are emphasized as key variables in the road ahead.

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Transcript

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[Lisa Booth]

Welcome to the Truth with Lisa Booth where we get to the heart of the issues that matter to you Today. We're talking about affordability. President Trump begins his cross country tour on affordability in battleground states like Pennsylvania, he's going to be talking about what he's done, what his administration has done to make life easier for you. We're going to get into it with EJ Antoni. He's the chief economist at the Heritage Foundation. He's a friend of the show we've had him on before to talk about President Trump's policies. Have they made life better? We'll talk about deregulation, the tax cuts, as well as the tariffs, and then also what impact does illegal immigration have on housing? So we'll dig into all that and more. Stay tuned for EJ.

Well, E.J. it's always great to have you on the show. I want to talk to you about the buzzword affordability. Everybody's talking about it. I'm sure, sure you've heard the word here or there in the past few weeks. So appreciate you coming on and talking about it.

[EJ Antoni]

Yeah, my pleasure, Lisa. I feel like the rest of the world is playing catch up to you and me. Were we like the only two talking about affordability for four stinking years before everyone else realized it was a problem? Yeah.

[Lisa Booth]

So it's like, why weren't we talking about or, you know, obviously we were. But like, now the media all of a sudden cares about affordability and the left all of a sudden cares about affordability after four years of in affordability.

Little rich, huh?

[EJ Antoni]

Exactly. It's because they think now it's politically profitable for them to do so, whereas before it, it obviously wasn't. Because the last thing they wanted to do when their, when their guy was in the White House was draw attention to the fact that he was failing Americans literally every single day in terms of the cost of living. And now all of a sudden, now, oh, now it's a concern. Okay.

Well, exactly.

[Lisa Booth]

Do you. How do you think, you know, obviously President Trump's about to embark on this affordability tour. He'll be in Penn, Pennsylvania today. How do you think the White House is doing in sort of messaging on what they've done and what President Trump's done on affordability?

[EJ Antoni]

Yeah, I think they're doing okay, Lisa. I just don't think they do themselves any favors when they conflate what Democrats are saying with the reality that Americans are feeling. Because those two things are not the same. Right. When Democrats say, oh, Trump caused an affordability crisis, okay, obviously that's ridiculous. The affordability crisis was the whole reason Trump back to Washington to fix it. Everyone was so sick of the economy under Biden and Bidenomics. That they sent Trump back because they remembered how good the economy was in the first Trump term. So they sent him back to D.C. specifically because there already was an affordability crisis, obviously before he took office, since it was before the election. So you don't want to say at the same time, though, just because what the Democrats are saying is a hoax, you don't want to, you don't want people to get the impression you're saying that what people are feeling is a hoax. And I hope I'm making that distinction clear. You know, there, there still is a very real affordability crisis. The, the monthly mortgage payment on a median price home literally doubled under the Biden administration. Now, have costs come down a little bit in terms of homeownership? Yes, but have we by any means reset the clock, as it were? Are we, are we back to where homeownership affordability was under the first Trump term? No, not at all. We have a very long way to go. When you have messaging that I think conflates those two and says the affordability crisis is a scam. No, the affordability crisis is very real, as it was two years ago, three years ago, et cetera. But the Democrats messaging on it is certainly the thing that is a scam. I do think the White House is doing a better job of highlighting the ways in which they are helping to bring costs down, or at least to stop them from going up. I mean, look at what they've been able to do with energy, with, with getting gas prices down to the lowest level in five years. Now you have, you have several states where, actually a lot of states, most states where gas is under $3. You even have a couple states where the average price for unleaded is below $2. It's like a buck 95, a buck 99. So great news there, Great progress there. And it's not just, Lisa. From the standpoint of now, the average American is gonna pay less every week when they fill up their own tank. But look around, especially this time of year at all the Amazon delivery vans, right? Or even if you're not getting an Amazon delivery, what about when you go to the grocery store, you grab a gallon of milk, a carton of eggs, a bag of bread, you name it. I don't care what it is. You grab anything off the shelf. How did it get to the store in the first place? On a truck or some other kind delivery vehicle that was fueled by oil, by diesel, by gas. Right. So bringing what I'm, what I'm getting at here, Lisa, is That by bringing down these energy prices, that's going to put downward pressure on prices throughout the economy because all of those transportation costs are a cost that a business has to pass on to the consumer in the final price of a product. And so if Amazon is paying less for its delivery costs, you're going to pay lower prices on Amazon. If the grocer is paying less for his or her delivery costs, you're going to pay less for your groceries. Things like that are great news. I think the messaging also will get a little bit easier in the new year because of some of the changes. With the one big beautiful bill, some of the tax changes, people will be able to, you know, not only are they going to get some, in some cases, a very sizable tax refund, but they're going to be able to change their tax withholdings. And so they'll get to keep more of their weekly or monthly paycheck in the first place. So things like that are really going to benefit the average American, not just, you know, the Wall street titan.

[Lisa Booth]

Yeah, I do worry a little bit about some of the, in the messaging because it's like if you're fighting with your partner, you know, your spouse, your boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever, and like someone's like, oh, like, calm down in a relationship, you know, you're like, don't tell me to calm down. Like, I'm trying to express how I feel, you know. And so I feel like Americans right now, like they're frustrated. It's showing up in the polling. You know, they're trying to tell politicians how they feel about the state of the economy. And so telling them, like, you're fine, calm down. Right. Like, it's just going to enrage voters when, like, they want to feel heard and understood and that they're struggling.

[EJ Antoni]

Exactly 100%. Lisa this, I think, is part of the difficulty with, well, let me put it this way. You know, at some point you can say this is Trump's economy now, right? But by no means can I think anybody say that not even a year into this, Trump was going to be able to somehow magically reverse literally everything Biden did. And it would take even longer than to reverse the effects. Let's not forget, not even a month into the Biden administration, he signed his first multitrillion dollar spending bill into law. So the spending started essentially immediately, and it was on a very grand scale. Again, we're talking multitrillion dollar pieces of legislation. But when did we finally get the peak of 40 year high inflation? It wasn't until a whole year and a half later. So it really took 18 months for the inflation to really kick in in a big way. When you got inflation over 9% by the CPI in double digits, looking at the PPI, you have lots of different metrics. So what I'm getting at here is the fact that even if Trump started, which he did on day one with the regulatory changes, with the executive orders, you couldn't expect that to have an instantaneous effect. It took even longer for Congress to act. My goodness, look how long took them just to get the tax bill across the finish line. So, yes, it is going to take time to actually get this stuff done, and unfortunately, it's going to take even longer to have an effect. Now, that's not much consolation for the average Joe who's really suffering. Right. I did an interview the other day, and I hope I didn't get too mad at the person asking the question, because they said, why are the American people so impatient? Why can't they just give the President two years or even just 18 months? Why can't they give him some time? I'm like, what do you mean wait 18 months? Why should they have to wait 18 months? They are right to be angry because they've been waiting three years. You're not just asking the American people to suffer for a year and a half because they've already been suffering for three years. So what you're really saying is not a year and a half, but four and a half years. That's how you have to look at this to get the perspective, I think, of the average American, what they've been dealing with and what they continue to be dealing with in this American economy. And again, it's not the President's fault. I don't mean by, you know, I'm not in any way trying to insinuate that the President is making things better, not worse. But I don't want to diminish how bad things got. Things got because of how much Biden made them worse.

[Lisa Booth]

I think the argument in the messaging should be, look, Biden screwed this up, which is why you elected us. We've made improvements. Here they are. But of course, the economy is not where it should be right now. You're still hurting. We have so much more to do. Why send the people in who broke it originally?

[EJ Antoni]

Well, exactly.

[Lisa Booth]

Like an acknowledgment that we're not where we should be. You have every right to be hurting, but we have made improvements. We just need more time. Like, it was really screwed up. You know, right.

[EJ Antoni]

That, you know, as, as Lincoln famously said, don't change horses midstream. Right. For the election during, during the middle of the Civil War. I think you're absolutely right, Lisa.

One analogy I like to use is that the, I guess Biden Bidenomics, you could say is much like alcoholism. In other words, the economy just moved from one spending binge or one drinking binge to the next. And every time the economy started to sober up and things started to look bad, they just gave it another shot of whiskey, another shot of spending to try to keep the buzz going, as it were. You know, if the government spends enough money, that sure is going to make your GDP numbers look really good. Then if the government hires enough people, that's going to make your jobs numbers look really good. But what's going on in the actual internals of the economy, it's rot, it's decay, it's organ failure, if you will. To continue with the alcoholism analogy, and what we're seeing this year is the painful sobering up instead of the hair of the dog like we've been doing. The Trump admin is saying, nope, we are going to actually sober up here. So what have we seen, for example, with government purchases? They've been flat for the year, essentially, and that means that it's been a drag on the GDP numbers. Despite that, the GDP numbers are actually looking pretty good on average. What about hiring? Well, it's been a total blow to the labor market and a blow to the jobs numbers that the federal government is not only no longer hiring people, but laying them off. Federal layoffs have actually been so intense this year, Lisa. They have offset entirely all of the hiring by state governments and local governments combined. So we've really seen the brakes come on hard there. And that is also just like government spending reducing, that is dragging down the GDP number reducing government hiring has dragged down the jobs numbers. But despite the official numbers not looking good, despite the initial effects appearing negative, this is not a bad sign. This is a good sign. It's a sign we're returning to long term economic health. Just like when you wake up with a hangover, not that any of us have been there, but when you wake up with a hangover, you feel lousy. And the temptation might be to go back to the bottle, right, the hair of the dog. But the path to long run health is to go through the pain of that headache of that, I don't know, the nausea, whatever the case may be, right. Go through the pain of the hangover, let your liver do its thing and clear out the junk. And that's how you get back on towards the path of health.

[Lisa Booth]

Gotta take a quick commercial break. More with EJ on the other side.

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[Lisa Booth]

Pressure is coming down.

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[EJ Antoni]

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[Lisa Booth]

How much of do you think by, you know, going through with the tariffs, President Trump ended up taking more ownership over the economy? And it makes it more difficult to blame it on Joe Biden because Americans sort of associate the tariffs with disruption. And like that's coming from him.

[EJ Antoni]

That's a really, really good point, Lisa. I think there's definitely merit to that. The more changes, especially radical changes that the President makes, the more people are going to associate the economy with him and with his actions. Unfortunately, though, tariffs are another example, especially the way this President has been using them. Tariffs are another case where you get short term pain, but long term gain to incentivize people to move manufacturing back to this country. For example, it temporarily might result in some imports getting more expensive. But what have we seen with most of the major car manufacturers? They're announcing they're going to create either invest to produce more factories or they're going to expand existing factories, whatever the case may be. Right, but they're going to be building more powertrains here, they're going to be doing more final assemblies here, they're going to have battery plants here, et cetera. All of that is going to take time. But again, it's the path to long term faster economic growth. And yes, in the short run, you might have some temporary price increases, but again, short term pain, long term gain for an American people though, who have already been suffering under a lot of pain, even just a little bit right now, can feel like a little bit more, I should say, can feel like the straw that broke the camel's back. So I think again, that's part of, part of the difficulty that this administration is facing as well.

[Lisa Booth]

But I also think the long term gain has to be like, particularly pronounced if you are making these sorts of disruptions and will we get there in terms of the long term gain being worth the interim suffering?

[EJ Antoni]

Great, great point. And I think, I think the way you determine that is how willing the President is to stay the course. You know, if the President just kind of gives up the ghost right now and says, okay, forget this whole tariff strategy, what is every foreign nation going to do? Realize that, oh, I guess every time the President talks now, he's just bluffing and now all of this international trade stuff is just completely off the table, all of the investment is going to dry up. I mean, we have over $10 trillion that have been promised in investment in the coming years. That's huge. That's more than the typical investment we get in the United States domestically in a year. Granted, it's spread out over several years. But just for some context here as to the size of the investments, whether IT's investments in IT infrastructure or manufacturing plants, or even if it's investments in things like software development, whatever the case may be hard or soft assets, the money is pouring in. All of that goes away. I think, if the President doesn't stay the course. And so.

I hate to say that you might be in for even more pain, but I don't think it's going to be considerably more than anything we've already experienced. I think it just may be, let's say, a few more weeks or maybe a few more months before we actually get more of these trade deals hammered out. We already have several. Right. Look at the great deal that he got with Japan, for example. But it'll probably be a little bit longer before we get more details, especially like the one with China, before we get all the details ironed out on that trade deal.

[Lisa Booth]

Why are so many Americans living paycheck to paycheck?

[EJ Antoni]

Great, great question. For. For a long time, the answer, especially with the millennial generation, was because they were making bad financial choices. Now, obviously, that wasn't true for everybody, right? But a disproportionate number of that generation, they didn't want to, like, own a home. They were just like, no, I'll just rent forever. Now, some of that was environmental, right? A lot of them were coming of age during. During the mortgage meltdown, and they saw the chaos that resulted from that. Many of them were victims of it. And they said, okay, this whole homeownership thing is a scam. It's not for me. But then we saw a lot of other patterns where they just. They didn't even want to save, right? They weren't saving for retirement. They weren't saving for, you know, saving up, like a sinking fund to buy a vehicle. They would just go out and buy a vehicle, and they would either lease it, which is the most expensive way to drive, or they would buy on credit. And increasingly, they did that with a lot of things, even things that traditionally most people would have just paid cash or, again, would have saved up for with a sinking fund or whatever the case may be. So millennials seem to be living beyond their means for a good number of years. And today, what we find with Gen Z or the Zoomers, whatever we call them, they're actually, when we look at their spending habits, Lisa, believe it or not, they're much more financially conservative, which is interesting, because I think that generation, at least, well, especially the men, politically seem to be much more conservative, according to some of the data I've read. But financially they certainly are. And so I don't think we can blame, especially on these really young folks, by and large, I don't think we can blame bad financial habits for why they're living paycheck to paycheck. It's not that they're living high on the low. Now, of course, just like with millennials, you'll find exceptions to every rule. I'm sure there are plenty of Gen Z folks out there who are total spendthrifts. And I get it, there are those in every generation, right? But with Gen Z, I think the reason they are living beyond their means is because the essentials, the daily essentials, the bare necessities are beyond their means. For a lot of them, they can't afford a place to live and food and insurance and transportation costs. I mean, it's staggering to see the figures, the number of people, young people today who have had to move back home with their parents. At one point during the Biden administration, if you can believe this, Lisa, young people were moving back in with their parents at the highest rate since the 1930s. For those playing along at home, that was the Great Depression. Among Gen Z, it's something like over half of them are either living with, with their parents or living with some other family member or they're living with a group of friends. So like three, four or five people to a place. You know, maybe they're renting a house or whatever the case may be. In other words, they just can't afford to make it on their own and that's not their fault. When it's a, when it's a small portion of a generation, yeah, I'll totally blame that portion of the generation. But when it's an entire generation like this, I just don't think we can blame them.

[Lisa Booth]

Do they really have it harder than previous generations, though?

[EJ Antoni]

I think, I think they do in a lot of ways, yeah. And I think the numbers bear this out. We just mentioned a moment ago the cost of home ownership for just a median price home. Not a mansion, Right? Just the median price home, which hasn't changed in terms of the home itself over the last four or five years. That cost today is literally double what it was four or five years ago. And so we've created this bifurcated economy where you can basically place almost everyone, not quite, but almost everyone, into one of two groups. Either those who were lucky enough to get a home before interest rates and home prices exploded in 20, 20, 21, 22, et cetera. And so it's those who did it before and those after who pretty much can't afford it and probably never will be able to afford it. I mean, that's just. That's sickening. And, and I know interest rates were a lot higher in the past. I know. I hear that from boomers all the time. Oh, back in my day, you know, in the early 80s, interest rates were double digits. You know, I had a mortgage at 20%. I get that. Yes, you did. But look at the ratio of the price of the home you bought to your salary. It was actually lower. And if you look at the cost of homeownership as a percentage of a salary, it was lower. And then on top of that, just look at the price of food, look at insurance. You know, these are not things that you can do without, right? Your transportation costs, etc. And if you add all of this up for a lot of young people today, it exceeds their budget. I'm not talking about, you know, what are all like Netflix or there's a, there's a Disney streaming service. Right. There's all these, all these non essentials, these different forms of entertainment that we have today. You know, I'm not talking about affording the latest iPhone, right? No. I'm just talking about the bare necessities here have gotten astronomically expensive. And I think this is a big reason why we are seeing so many of the youngest generation today. Really, they're really leaning towards extremes. They're leaning towards guys like Mamdani, you know, but they're leaning towards other extremists as well. Basically, anybody who is willing to acknowledge the fact that there is a cost of living crisis and that the hand this generation got dealt is incredibly unfair. And it's like any politician who's just willing to acknowledge that fact. People flock to them. I mean, you had, you had almost 90% of some demographics of young people voting for Mamdani in New York. That is astounding. That means he was even capturing a sizable portion of Republicans. I'm not saying a majority of them, but a sizable portion of them nonetheless.

[Lisa Booth]

How does illegal immigration impact housing in the country and the cost of housing?

[EJ Antoni]

Oh, it's huge. Lisa, this is a great point. I'm so glad you raised this. It's something that not enough people are talking about right now. When we look at home prices, cost of living, it's supply and demand, right? Sometimes we fall into the fallacy of just talking about one or the other. It's both. It's supply and demand. When it comes to the supply of homes, that's not nearly as elastic as the demand for homes. What can change easier? What changes quicker? What happened under Biden was we imported over 10 million illegal aliens, right? And the result of that was a huge increase in the demand for housing units. Those people gotta live somewhere. And when you import the population of New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the country, don't tell me that's not going to have an effect on home prices. It most certainly will. Now, for better or for worse, all those people were dispersed throughout the country. I get it. But still, it represents a significant increase in the demand for homes. And whether it's homes, apartments, whatever the case may be, the result of that was a big increase in the price of housing and therefore the cost of living. And you just can't dispute that. Again, it is supply and demand. And they both matter.

[Lisa Booth]

Quick break. If you like what you're hearing, please share on social media or maybe send it to your family and friends.

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[Lisa Booth]

Pressure is coming down.

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[EJ Antoni]

Watch it on prime video starting January 8th.

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[EJ Antoni]

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[EJ Antoni]

Today.

[Lisa Booth]

Has inflation improved since President Trump took office?

[EJ Antoni]

By some metrics it has. I would say by most metrics it has. By some metrics you could make, you could argue that it really hasn't improved. I don't think there's any way though, that you can say it's gotten worse. But I would say by most metrics, I think it's clear that it has actually improved. Prices are not going up as quickly as they were before. You have a few instances like gasoline, where because of the administration's policies, prices have come down. You have a few other cases where things like eggs that are a bit of an anomaly. Right? You know, the Biden administration was literally paying farmers to kill their egg laying hens. That was the stupidest thing ever. And the Trump administration reversed that, put some other productive measures in place and just those simple changes increase the number of egg laying hens, which increased the number of eggs, which obviously brought down the price of eggs. So you've seen things like that. They're also doing similar measures right now to increase the size of the cattle herd in this country. That'll increase many months down the road. That'll increase the amount of cows going to slaughter, which will bring down beef prices. So at the end of the day, we have made some progress. I don't think we've made enough progress though. There's a lot more to be done. The deregulation efforts that they've been putting in place this year are going to start bearing fruit in 2026. That's positive news there. The tax changes again, allowing people to keep more of their money, that's going to be very beneficial too. Because even if prices don't go down, if people have more money in their paycheck they can still buy more. Right? So it's what your weekly paycheck can buy that really, really counts.

[Lisa Booth]

So you think the economy is going to be in a different place heading into the midterms?

[EJ Antoni]

I think so. I certainly hope so, too. But I do think so for a couple of reasons, some of which we've already mentioned. Right? Like the deregulation, the tax changes, the energy policy. All of those are very, very positive. But another thing that I think is big, we just touched on it a second ago, is the illegal immigration component of this. I am so sick and tired of all these. I mean, they're just anecdotes, really. This whole idea that all these illegal immigrants came here and were working in the construction industry, and if we deport them all, there's gonna be no one to build homes. Excuse me, if that was the case, why wasn't home construction booming under the Biden years? Right. It didn't. The number of construction jobs did not escalate dramatically. They did not accelerate dramatically. The number of homes coming onto the market did not go up dramatically. Same thing with apartments, Right? Housing units. We did not see the big increase in supply that should have corresponded with the huge increase in the number of construction workers that should have happened if all these illegal aliens were working in construction. The idea that deporting all these illegal aliens is going to cause inflation is ridiculous. Then why didn't it cause deflation when we imported them all? Spare me this nonsense. What will happen, though, by deporting millions of illegal aliens? Assuming the Trump administration actually does it is going to be to put tremendous downward pressure on the price of homes, but also a lot of other prices throughout the economy. Because, again, it's supply and demand. People love to talk about how, oh, illegal aliens were here and, you know, they're working all these jobs, providing all these products and services. Really? Then why are so many of them on government services? Something that we were told couldn't happen. And then we find out states like California have been giving them Social Security numbers and enrolling them in all kinds of welfare benefits, so much so that the treasury has now had to start cutting people off when they find out about it. So don't tell me it doesn't happen. It does. These people are not all here working. And removing them removes all of the demand that they've been placing on all kinds of public services. Again, these families, they have to live somewhere, right? So they're taking up a housing unit. Their kids are in public schools, paid for by our tax dollars. They're using emergency rooms paid for by our tax dollars. You name it. They're driving on public roads, right? Paid for by our tax dollars in so many different ways. They have been putting a strain on this economy and a burden on the taxpayer and removing them will remove that strain and will remove that burden.

[Lisa Booth]

E.J. and Tony, appreciate you for coming on the show. Look forward to having you on again soon.

[EJ Antoni]

Lisa, always a pleasure. Thanks for having me.

[Lisa Booth]

How is EJ Antoni? Appreciate him for coming on the show. Appreciate you guys at home for listening every Tuesday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the week. Also want to thank my producer John Castio for putting the show together. Until next time.

[Trainer Games Announcer]

10 athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical exercises and mental breaking points.

You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT contract for $250,000. This is where mindset comes in. Someone will be eliminated.

[Lisa Booth]

Pressure is coming down.

[Trainer Games Announcer]

This is Trainer Games.

[EJ Antoni]

Watch it on prime video starting January 8th.

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