Washington Examiner columnist Salena Zito predicted that President Donald Trump will “forcefully” address affordability during his visit to Pennsylvania on Tuesday.
Trump said during a Cabinet meeting last week that “the word affordability is a Democrat scam,” prompting news outlets to infer that the president is not focused on affordability. However, according to Zito, Trump was expressing frustration with the Democratic Party’s use of the word.
“I think what you’ve seen is him initially being frustrated with the Democrats using the word affordability as a catchphrase,” Zito said on Fox News’s Fox & Friends on Monday. “I think Democrats have sort of misunderstood that the president is not on top of this. And you’ll see him today address this issue forcefully.”
“I think that [Trump’s] message is going to be very, very different, right, with President Biden. If you remember, in 2024, early 2024, President Biden talked about snackflation. He literally blamed the snack companies, where 80% of them are located in Pennsylvania, for the inflation,” she added. “I don’t think you’re going to see Trump blaming a company or people or manufacturing or farmers or truckers.”
TRUMP SAYS HE’S ‘WORKING TO MAKE THINGS LESS EXPENSIVE’
Trump will embark on a national tour on Tuesday to address economic matters after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation rose a tenth of a percentage point to 2.8% for the year ending in September. The bureau’s report was delayed due to the historic government shutdown.
The Federal Reserve has a goal of 2% annual inflation, but has not been able to achieve it since inflation began rising in early 2021.