SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Yesterday, the White House said it plans to ease tariffs on some food imports, a move President Trump says is going to, quote, "make America affordable again." The president has been turning his attention back to economic concerns as voters express discontent with the cost of living.
NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith has been looking into this news and how the White House is addressing Trump's affordability problem. Tam, lay out for us why affordability is a problem for the president.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Well, as a former economic advisor to President Trump put it to me, people are in a crabby mood when it comes to the economy right now. They are worried about high prices and weakening job prospects. A new poll from AP-NORC found that 67% of those surveyed disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy. That used to be his strongest issue. And all of this was on display starkly in last week's elections where Republicans, including candidates Trump endorsed, took a drubbing. Since then, the president has been talking about affordability a lot.
PFEIFFER: Yes, I've been hearing him use that word. Give us an overview of what he is saying about it.
KEITH: Yeah, his initial response to questions about affordability concerns were pretty dismissive. He seemed to imply that it was just a messaging problem. He talked a lot about how incredibly well the stock market has done this year, and he keeps saying gas prices are way down, though they are slightly up from this time last year. Then on Wednesday night during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office, he recalibrated a little.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: My administration and our partners in Congress will continue our work to lower the cost of living, restore public safety, grow our economy and make America affordable again for all Americans. Again, costs are way down.
KEITH: Inflation through September has been steady this year at about 3%. Eggs are cheaper than when he took office, but things like coffee and ground beef are way more expensive.
PFEIFFER: And Tam, how much does it matter that there's a disconnect between how people are feeling and what the president is saying?
KEITH: Well, I spoke to an economist who served in the Obama administration who said that they were really careful back then not to boast about the economy because people were still feeling the pain from the great recession. But he said that President Biden didn't show the same reserve, and that made him look out of touch with people's lived reality. And President Trump risks doing that but on steroids because of his tendency to boast. Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia was on "The Sean Spicer Show" this week and said, the president needs to show more compassion.
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MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: Gaslighting the people and trying to tell them that prices have come down is not helping. It's actually infuriating people because people know what they're paying at the grocery store. They know what they're paying for their kids' clothes and school supplies. They know what they're paying for their electricity bills.
KEITH: And a senior administration official I spoke with this week, who wasn't authorized to speak on the record, did say that soon, President Trump plans to travel around the country more, talking about the economy and acknowledging that there's more work to do to help people feeling economic strain.
PFEIFFER: So clearly, the White House has to figure out its message on affordability, but is it also taking action to address the underlying concerns?
KEITH: Yes, as the affordability discourse is heated up, Trump has talked about several ideas. There's the 50-year mortgage, which would lower monthly payments in the short term but vastly increase the total cost of buying a home. Trump has also teased a $2,000 tariff dividend to return some of the windfall from tariffs to American taxpayers.
But these ideas haven't been fleshed out in any way. One concrete thing that the administration is doing is rolling back some of the president's steep tariffs on products that can't be made or grown in the U.S. extensively, like coffee, cocoa and bananas. And that does have the potential to impact prices.
PFEIFFER: That is NPR's Tamara Keith. Tam, thank you.
KEITH: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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