President Trump will outline his plan to tackle persistent inflation and economic concerns during a stop in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania on Tuesday, effectively kicking off a midterm election season that will focus on Americans’ finances.
Mr. Trump says Democrats are using their “affordability” mantra to downplay his progress in bringing down prices that soared under the Biden administration.
Yet economic worries are unmistakable and unshakable as Mr. Trump tries to upend trade and reshape the economy.
Mr. Trump recently eased tariffs on coffee, bananas and other groceries to lower prices and outlined a multipoint plan to slash the cost of beef. He has promised bigger tax refunds and says new automobile and pharmaceutical plants will bring more jobs.
“We inherited a mess,” Mr. Trump said at the White House. “The Democrats caused the affordability problem, and we’re the ones who are fixing it.”
Mr. Trump will make that case at Mount Airy Casino Resort in Pennsylvania, a state he won in 2016 and 2024 but lost to Joseph R. Biden in 2020.
As the Biden administration fades from view, Mr. Trump is racing to show progress. His approval rating under Gallup’s closely watched measure sank from 47% in January to 36% last month.
Only 36% of voters strongly or slightly approved of Mr. Trump’s handling of the economy in a November poll from Marquette University, down from 43% in July.
Workers are being laid off in high numbers, and the manufacturing sector is shedding jobs instead of gaining them. Meanwhile, the specter of job-replacing artificial intelligence is spooking recent college graduates.
Mr. Trump took steps Monday to ease financial pain on a key constituency: farmers who face high costs because of inflation and trade wars. He announced a $12 billion bailout package, including $11 billion from the Department of Agriculture’s Farmer Bridge Assistance program.
The package aims to restore financial stability for growers while China resumes soybean purchases and the administration works to address high costs.
“They’re the backbone of our country,” Mr. Trump said of farmers, who formed a major bloc of political support for his presidential bids.
During the first several months of his presidency, Mr. Trump courted tech executives and foreign dignitaries and conducted high-wire peace and trade deals. His visit Tuesday will mark a return to a swing state that helped send him back to the White House after he promised to tackle “Bidenflation.”
Democrats flipped the script in the off-year November elections by campaigning on affordability and sweeping key races in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City.
With the midterm campaign season looming, congressional Republicans want to regain the upper hand. They are clinging to narrow control of both chambers, including a seven-seat House majority, though two seats typically held by Democrats are vacant.
Pennsylvania has 17 House seats.
Some Republicans worry that Mr. Trump sent the wrong message recently by downplaying Democrats’ cost-of-living mantra.
“The word affordability is a Democrat scam,” Mr. Trump said. “They say it, and then they go into the next subject, and everyone thinks, ‘Oh, they had lower prices.’ No, they had the worst inflation in the history of our country.”
The consumer price index, a key measure of inflation, soared to 9% in 2022 during the Biden years. It dropped to 3% on an annual basis but was still above the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Mr. Trump is frustrated by media coverage of the situation. He said the administration inherited “embedded inflation” from the Biden administration.
“What we are not going to do is say that Americans don’t know what they are feeling,” Mr. Bessent said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “We have been making a lot of gains.”
Mr. Trump points to reduced gasoline prices, lower mortgage rates and cheaper eggs as evidence of improvement.
On Monday, the White House cited Gas Buddy statistics showing gasoline prices below $3 per gallon in 37 states, resulting in a median U.S. price of $2.79.
“When gasoline comes down, everything sort of follows,” Mr. Trump said.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump is expected to highlight progress on prices and Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which extended his first-term tax cuts, increased tax deductions and eliminated taxes on tipped wages. It also incentivized domestic manufacturing through tax deductions.
Democrats contend the legislation benefits the wealthy while inducing a health care affordability crisis with a rollback of Obamacare and Medicaid health care benefits.
“This isn’t just ignorance. It’s outright cruelty by the highest levels of the federal government,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said on X.
Democrats argue that price pressures were self-inflicted when Mr. Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on dozens of trading partners and key sectors such as steel, automobiles and furniture.
Small businesses sued Mr. Trump in a case that has reached the Supreme Court, saying the White House usurped Congress’ taxing powers with some of the tariffs.
They said new costs on foreign goods are hurting their bottom lines. Various industries have complained about higher equipment costs and the uncertainty about Mr. Trump’s trade plans.
“The president has a difficult selling job to do,” said Ross Baker, a politics professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “With Obamacare subsidies expiring, a perception that prices are increasing and residual effects from the first tariffs, he will be hard-pressed to offer credible good news.”
• Seth McLaughlin contributed to this report.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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