President Trump has unleashed a barrage of proposals aimed at lowering Americans’ cost of living and has pledged to announce more this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The messaging blitz makes clear that Mr. Trump understands the economy is the issue that will decide whether Democrats win House and Senate majorities in the November midterms. A Democratic victory in either chamber would reduce Mr. Trump to a lame duck for his final two years in office while Democrats thwart his agenda and investigate his administration.
Desperate to prevent that fate, Mr. Trump has borrowed some ideas from the Democratic playbook, including capping credit card interest rates and barring institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes.
Mr. Trump has recently floated initiatives that the White House says will lower the cost of living when combined with the principal tenets of his economic agenda: tax cuts, higher tariffs on U.S. trading partners and expanding oil and gas drilling.
The proposals include:
• Redirecting health care subsidies from insurers to consumers to cut costs.
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• Directing the federal government to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds to lower housing costs.
• Banning institutional investors from buying single-family homes to increase housing supply.
• Capping credit card interest rates at 10%.
• Allowing Americans to withdraw money from their 401(k) accounts tax-free to use as a down payment on a home.
• Issuing $2,000 tariff refund checks to Americans.
• Requiring Big Tech companies to pay for data centers’ energy consumption, reducing utility costs.
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Mr. Trump also has signed most-favored-nation agreements with 11 pharmaceutical companies to reduce prescription medicine costs.
Mr. Trump has promised “much more detail” about his housing affordability proposals at Davos, the annual forum that starts Monday.
Despite Mr. Trump’s insistence that the U.S. economy is hotter than ever, Americans are telling pollsters that they are dissatisfied and worried about the future. With the economy the top issue for midterm voters, Mr. Trump is bragging about improved conditions while scrambling to pursue policies that will bring down prices.
A CNN poll released Friday found that 61% of Americans disapprove of Mr. Trump’s handling of the economy, the worst mark of his two terms. Just 42% of respondents said the economy will be very good or somewhat good in a year, down from 56% who expressed that optimism when Mr. Trump returned to office last January.
Critics have accused the president of tossing out ideas without a coherent strategy and seeing what sticks.
“The president is throwing Hail Mary passes because it’s getting late in the game and he’s down with the American people,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic political strategist. “He has failed on affordability, and he’s desperate.”
James Mohs, an economics professor at the University of New Haven, said all the proposals fit together as a sound plan to give working-class Americans more disposable income.
“All these little things he’s taken together are part of a master plan,” Mr. Mohs said. “The plan is to reduce your mortgage expenses here, your health care costs there, along with the lower tax rates. It all puts more cash in your pocket.”
He said these plans won’t show immediate results because it takes time for prices to decline.
Mr. Mohs said parts of the president’s plan require congressional buy-in, which is difficult.
Mr. Trump’s plan for a one-year cap on credit card interest rates at 10% and support of a bill that would increase oversight of credit card companies would almost certainly need congressional approval. Republicans have blocked such positions when proposed by Democrats.
Mr. Trump also would need Congress to codify his plan to ban institutional investors from owning single-family homes. Last week, he called on lawmakers to support his health care proposals.
“A lot of these things are going to require congressional action. If they can stop fighting amongst each other and do the best thing for the people, then this is a great strategy,” Mr. Mohs said. “But both parties are so busy trying to discredit the other that nothing gets done.”
Banning institutional investors from buying up single-family homes was a key campaign promise of Vice President Kamala Harris before the 2024 election, in which she lost in a blowout to Mr. Trump. Capping credit card interest rates has long been championed by the Democrats’ liberal wing, including Sen. Bernard Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
Mr. Trump went so far as to call Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a longtime Democratic opponent, to discuss a plan to cap credit card interest rates.
Mr. Seawright said he doesn’t expect the Democrats to give Mr. Trump any help on Capitol Hill, even if Democrats have championed credit card caps and barring institutional investors from buying up homes.
“Democrats are not in charge. It’s the Republicans’ job to fix the problems they’ve created, and so it’s not up to us to figure out our strategy or bail them out,” he said.
In a meeting with Republican lawmakers this month, Mr. Trump emphasized the need for them to support his affordability proposals. He said Democrats “can’t win” the midterms if Republicans follow his lead on health care.
The president even told the Republican Conference to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for abortion, if it means getting a deal on his health care plan. Some pro-life lawmakers and groups were frustrated with Mr. Trump’s suggestion.
Jimmy Keady, a national Republican political strategist, said it doesn’t matter what Congress does and that the only results that matter are the votes in November. He has said voters will see that Mr. Trump has improved the economy.
“Trump is delivering what he promised: lower costs, fewer regulations, energy dominance and an economy that works for people who actually earn a paycheck,” he said. “Results matter, especially when it comes to people’s wallets, and that’s what voters are seeing.”
Soaring inflation under President Biden helped Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans score sweeping victories at the ballot box in 2024 as they won the White House and Senate and retained their House majority.
Democrats pulled off critical victories in the November elections and credited the wins to their focus on affordability, which will be their key message for the midterms.
Mr. Trump received some positive economic news last week. The consumer price index, a measure of the cost of everyday goods such as gasoline, groceries and rent, increased only slightly in December, up from 0.3% from the previous month.
Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, rose 0.2% from November to December and 2.6% compared with the same period in 2024.
The inflation numbers were slightly better than expected but remained well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target rate.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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