GOP lawmakers unhappy with Trump's affordability message: 'You can't call it a hoax' [View all]

Source: The Hill

12/11/25 6:00 AM ET


Senate Republicans, unsettled by recent Democratic victories in the off-year elections, want President Trump to do more to respond to the issue of “affordability,” a buzzword Trump recently dismissed as a Democratic “con job” despite polls showing voters view higher costs as a major issue.

Republican lawmakers say they’re glad Trump traveled to Pennsylvania on Tuesday to tout his economic record, but they warn that the White House needs to do more to show voters it is working hard to ease the financial burdens felt by millions of Americans struggling to cope with rising costs.

“You can’t call it a hoax and suggest that people are going to believe it,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said of Trump’s attempts to dispute evidence that affordability has become a major concern for millions of Americans. “What you say matters.” Trump has seemed out of touch at times with voters’ concerns over the economy, a dynamic that plagued his predecessor, former President Biden. Trump told Politico in a recent interview that he would grade the economy as “A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus.”

Speaking in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, the president argued that “prices are coming down very substantially” and blasted Democratic critics who are hitting him over affordability for pushing a “hoax.” Murkowski suggested those around Trump may be out of touch.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5643398-trump-republicans-affordability-concerns/