President Donald Trump inherited an economy sputtering from four years of the Biden administration’s economic strategy of overspending, overregulating, and a simple refusal to recognize that COVID-19 was over. He won in 2024 because voters still remember how the economy flourished during Trump’s first administration and didn’t want four more years of stunted-growth policies from Democrats.
The polls showed this in 2024: Voters trusted Trump by almost double digits over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on the economy. But voters have little patience when the political party in power fails to deliver immediately. Recent polls show that people have generally soured on the president’s economic agenda, with some polls showing the president almost 20 percentage points underwater on the economy.
Unfortunately, it’s no secret that the party in power often gets hammered in the midterm elections. The upcoming election appears to be no different. Particularly, if the administration continues to sputter in addressing the affordability crisis.
To riff on James Carville, “It’s affordability, stupid.”
Affordability remains the top issue facing American families. Affordability isn’t a Democratic hoax or media conspiracy to take down the president. It’s a lived reality for the millions of American families who check their receipts when leaving the grocery store with a slight panic, review their bank and credit card statements with anxiety, or have given up on eating out due to higher costs. A recent poll found that 80% of people say affordability hasn’t improved under Trump.
The reality is that failing to address affordability will likely result in Trump’s impeachment.
Not because mismanaging the economy is a high crime or misdemeanor, but because if Democrats take back the House, they may impeach Trump to appease their radical base. Not to mention a Democratic House launching investigations into the Trump administration and tying up executive branch resources with countless fishing expeditions masquerading as fact-finding and shutdown threats.
To be clear, many saw this coming. In certain ways, the inflation and affordability crisis were inevitable. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government printed trillions of dollars. At one point, 30% of all money in circulation had been printed during the pandemic. Federal spending skyrocketed, checks were mailed out, fraud and improper payments ran rampant, and interest rates remained low, allowing financially established people to purchase homes with low interest rates, creating the perfect firestorm for the coming inflation and affordability crisis.
Today, many of Trump’s supporters rightly recognize the affordability problems facing younger people and their families. Purchasing a starter home feels out of reach for many people, while eating out and filling up a grocery cart stir up anxiety.
Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s proposed fixes fail to address the root problem. Tariffs, credit card interest rate caps, and 50-year mortgages are all nonstarters for solving affordability. Credit card interest caps and 50-year mortgages address the demand side rather than the supply side. Tariffs, as economists note and have been proven correct time and time again, harm economic growth and increase costs. Rather than embracing free markets, economic innovation, and unleashing American ingenuity to solve today’s problems, the Trump administration’s solutions err on the side of more government intervention.
The truth is that taming affordability doesn’t require a nanny state. Rather, it simply requires trusting the tried-and-tested. For example, deregulation, freeing federal lands for housing development, and cutting government spending are all proven ways to tame the affordability crisis. The proposed “Trump Houses,” entry-level homes intended for first-time buyers, address the supply problem and would drive down costs, resulting in more families purchasing homes.
The November elections will come down to whoever has a real plan to address affordability. Virginia has already shown us that Democrats running and winning on an affordability message will still legislate higher taxes and a radical and inflationary agenda. Unfortunately, many in Washington and with the president’s ear continue to embrace government intervention rather than unleashing American ingenuity and the free market to solve the affordability crisis.
Conservatives must unify behind a proven and tested affordability agenda that delivers real results for the public ahead of the midterm elections. The bottom line is clear: It’s about affordability, stupid.
Tim Chapman is the president of Advancing American Freedom.
