Donald Trump’s biggest cheerleaders in the media suspect that the president’s mysterious national address is a late bid at damage control.
Hosts David Brody and Dr. Gina Loudon of the MAGA-friendly Real America’s Voice network theorized on Wednesday morning’s American Sunrise that Trump’s primetime CBS address to the nation will focus on “affordability.”
“Clearly, this is to regain the narrative and explain more about the affordability issue in America and what this administration is doing,” said Brody. “I think they’re trying to seize this right off the top and make sure that it doesn’t get away from them.”
“Yeah, because it almost did,” said Loudon. “There were a lot of people saying, ‘Hey, why is President Trump so focused on all the foreign policy and not as focused on the domestic policy?’ Because as for my house and me, we’re not feeling economically what we thought we’d be feeling in the quote-unquote golden age.”
“It’s a PR thing, right?” she added. “I mean, he’s got a captive audience. You can do it from the White House, and you can say what you want to say, uninterrupted, and it’s a big deal.”
One of the people who asked why Trump was so focused on foreign policy and not domestic policy was Loudon herself.
After Republicans were shellacked in November gubernatorial races, Loudon, 57, said, “I think it is time to come home and to focus on our country—especially our economy.”
In the weeks since the Nov. 4 elections, Trump, 79, has begrudgingly attempted to address fears about affordability while simultaneously calling the issue a Democratic “hoax” and “con job.” His go-to line has been that things are more affordable under his administration than under Joe Biden’s, despite data to the contrary.
For the GOP’s sake, Trump desperately needs to flip Americans’ opinion on his economy. He’s racking up record-low approval numbers on the economy, and his name is becoming an albatross for Republicans clinging to a slim majority in the House of Representatives.
At a Pennsylvania rally on Dec. 9, a stop on what has been informally dubbed an “affordability tour,” Trump tried to convince Pennsylvania voters that his economy is booming, but digressed to chastise the audience for buying too many dolls and pencils for their children.
“You can give up certain products,” Trump told the crowd. “You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter. Two or three is nice, but you don’t need 37 dolls.”
So far, Americans haven’t been buying Trump’s spin. Polls show that nearly half of Americans think the affordability crisis is “worse than it’s ever been,” and voters are laying the blame firmly at the feet of Trump and his signature tariffs.
Trump has tried to convince Americans that the tariffs will cause short-term harm but boost the American economy in the long run, but with every month’s poor economic report, Trump and his officials keep pushing the start date of their promised “golden age” further and further back.
