Weather 
Washington — After weeks of decrying the focus on “affordability” and calling it a “Democratic hoax,” President Trump is speaking in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, Tuesday night to sell his economic agenda ahead of a challenging midterm election season for congressional Republicans.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News Tuesday that Mr. Trump would deliver a “positive, economic-focused speech,” and she urged Republicans to be more “vocal about touting the accomplishments” of the Trump administration.
Mr. Trump’s speech will hone in on gas prices, which dropped under $3 on average nationwide for the first time in four years, as well as rising wages, sources previously said. The president has publicly and privately vented about the focus on affordability as an issue, referring to it as a “hoax,” a “con job” and a “scam” perpetuated by Democrats, and has insisted his administration has brought prices down.
“I don’t want to hear about the affordability, because right now, we’re much less,” the president said on Nov. 6 after touting lower gas prices and a Walmart deal on a Thanksgiving food package.
Last week, the president called the affordability issue a “fake narrative” made up by Democrats to sway the public. But at the same time, he said he had inherited problems with affordability from his predecessor.
“They just say the word,” the president said during his Cabinet meeting on Dec. 2. “It doesn’t mean anything to anybody. They just say it — affordability. I inherited the worst inflation in history. There was no affordability. Nobody could afford anything.”
Inflation has edged higher in recent months, partly due to the Trump administration’s tariffs, but the latest inflation numbers have been delayed until mid-December — after the Federal Reserve’s interest rate-setting meeting this week — because of the recent U.S. government shutdown.
In an interview published Tuesday, the president told Politico that “prices are all coming down.”
Behind the scenes, aides told CBS News last week the president has grown increasingly irritated by perceptions that his policies aren’t easing prices.
His travel to sell his economic agenda in Pennsylvania is a quiet acknowledgement that he needs to do more to rally the public behind his policies. Polling shows voters are feeling the crunch of still-high prices and the cost of living, as well as the challenging market for job seekers.
In a November CBS News/YouGov poll, 60% of respondents agreed Mr. Trump makes prices and inflation “sound better than they really are.” Nearly two-thirds of respondents said the president’s policies are making grocery prices go up. Just 32% said the U.S. economy is good, down from 38% the month Mr. Trump took office in January. Respondents were most likely to say the economy and inflation are the most important to them, and among those who listed the economy and inflation as their top priorities, 77% said the president is not spending enough time on those issues.
The Palm Beach Post, a local paper near Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida, published an opinion piece Tuesday with the headline, “‘Affordability’ is not a hoax, Trump. Reality costs too much.”
Pennsylvania will feature key races for Republicans as they try to hold onto their majority in the House of Representatives in 2026. Mount Pocono, where Mr. Trump is speaking Tuesday night, is just over 30 miles from Scranton, former President Joe Biden’s hometown.
