Top Trump political adviser says president will focus on affordability next year
Source: Politico
11/05/2025 02:01 PM EST
Fresh off Democrats clean sweep of the 2025 off-year elections, President Donald Trump plans to refocus his political messaging on affordability, James Blair, the political director for Trumps 2024 presidential campaign and the RNC, told POLITICO in an exclusive interview Wednesday.
The president is very keyed into whats going on, and he recognizes, like anybody, that it takes time to do an economic turnaround, but all the fundamentals are there, and I think youll see him be very, very focused on prices and cost of living, Blair, who now serves as White House deputy chief of staff, said in an interview on The Conversation with Dasha Burns.
Armed with a message that focused on the cost of living, Democrats had a series of wins Tuesday. Governor candidates Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger both beat their Republican opponents in New Jersey and Virginia by double digits. Democrats also flipped at least 13 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates, successfully passed a redistricting referendum in California and saw Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, cruise to victory in the New York City mayoral race.
The victors strict focus on affordability was key, Blair said. Why did Zohran Mamdani do so well last night? He relentlessly focused on affordability, he said. People talk about communists, they can say all these things, but the fact is he was talking about the cost of living.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/05/donald-trump-affordability-2025-elections-james-blair-00637711
Sure Jan.
Your INTENTION was to fire tear gas near schools with children, drag women out of cars that you slammed into, fire pepper balls at priests, and go into homes and businesses to "disappear" people and deport to them to who knows where.
There was nothing about "Price of eggs", "Kitchen table issues", "Working class". Instead it was "DEI", "illegal aliens", suppression of the free press, dissolution of Congress, and the takeover of the SCOTUS.
pecosbob
(8,240 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(60,320 posts)wiggs
(8,565 posts)bucolic_frolic
(53,259 posts)tanyev
(48,308 posts)
70sEraVet
(5,117 posts)"Please pass the girl in the martini glass!"
Bernardo de La Paz
(60,320 posts)Paladin
(32,023 posts)efhmc
(15,934 posts)ananda
(33,991 posts)I've been laughing out loud ever since I started reading this thread.
Bread and Circuses
(1,394 posts)efhmc
(15,934 posts)70sEraVet
(5,117 posts)hasn't played well to many hungry Americans watching their neighbors beaten and disappeared in umarked cars?
The INGRATITUDE!!
Buddyzbuddy
(1,907 posts)LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(13,281 posts)Jack Valentino
(4,030 posts)to make a START on anything beyond 'talk' about it.....
It is a lot easier for a president to WRECK an economy,
than to improve it---
but President Joe BIDEN did a pretty damned good job at it!
DallasNE
(7,922 posts)Trump should have been thinking about affordability before doing the massive tax cuts. Now everything will look unaffordable. You cant fix stupid.
Jack Valentino
(4,030 posts)or maybe less
DJ Synikus Makisimus
(1,121 posts)Ol Janx Spirit
(493 posts)...because of Biden's policies; just not fast enough for the electorate to elect Harris.
My biggest fear was always that Emperor Tangerine would not actually do anything to affect the Biden economy and ride the soft landing and cooling inflation into the midterms before enacting the horrible agenda he espoused on the campaign trail. That's not at all what happened obviously--thank goodness. I believe it would have been a far more powerful strategy than to impose the tariffs, kick the abuelas out of the country, and bulldoze the White House.
Hey Blair, I've got news for you: your boss doesn't understand "prices and cost of living."
Good luck trying to get him to.
The rest of us are seriously looking forward to next year. Oh, and, go ahead and preserve any documents for the hearings that will come.
C Moon
(13,332 posts)Into a downward spiral.
rubbersole
(10,886 posts)And stfu. If it doesn't benefit a billionaire, and you get a cut, you ain't doing shit. And if you're trying to figure out which way the wind blows, well, stay upwind of yourself.
Skittles
(168,652 posts)SURE, BRO
Grokenstein
(6,206 posts)...in two weeks.
All you have to do is give up every ideal America ever had.
intheozone
(1,128 posts)Diraven
(1,739 posts)Every time he's interviewed he claims prices for everything are down - gas, groceries, eggs, etc. Also he solved inflation and we're taking in trillions in tariffs.
J_William_Ryan
(3,150 posts)If he did, he would have addressed it this year, from day one not wait until next year only because Republicans got their collective ass kicked last Tuesday.
RockRaven
(18,391 posts)quakerboy
(14,657 posts)He will yap incoherently about it in ways that the media will have to spin somehow to try and make sound sensible, and his followers will buy it hook line and sinker while Dems try to force reps to do things to help the republican base despite their desire to harm their own followers.
SunSeeker
(57,262 posts)Last edited Thu Nov 6, 2025, 06:39 AM - Edit history (1)
Too busy playing golf and holding billionaire parties?
Hugin
(37,136 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(60,320 posts)Well, maybe an inkling of a concept of a plan.
WestMichRad
(2,794 posts)And price of goods? Nothing we can do about that, its private enterprise.
Repeat ad nauseum. Thats his focus on affordability.
Bernardo de La Paz
(60,320 posts)Lifeafter70
(726 posts)Next year
Javaman
(64,914 posts)"Top Trump political adviser says president will focus on affordability next year for the wealthy buying new yachts."
Janeyre
(22 posts)lark
(25,707 posts)He's focused on kicking people out of jobs and hurting every democratic state and it's voters. When you kill jobs and end healthcare, talking about groceries doesn't cut it. He may change the narrative, but the criminal hate filled actions against us and the world will continue.
usonian
(22,458 posts)
LetMyPeopleVote
(172,659 posts)After Democrats scored election victories, the president started talking about affordability. Unfortunately, his assessment is rooted in nonsense.
ð° MSNBC
— The ðºð¸ Headline Bot (@us-headlines.bsky.social) 2025-11-06T18:44:29.514Z
Trump makes an overdue discovery: 'They have this new word called affordability'
â¶ MSNBC | headline in context
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-makes-overdue-discovery-new-word-called-affordability-rcna242345
The day after Democratic election victories, Trump assured the public, Affordability is our goal. That was followed by a related online rant: 2025 Thanksgiving dinner under Trump is 25% lower than 2024 Thanksgiving dinner under Biden, according to Walmart. My cost [sic] are lower than the Democrats on everything, especially oil and gas! So the Democrats [sic] affordability issue is DEAD! STOP LYING!!!
Whether the president understands this or not, Walmart lowered the cost of its Thanksgiving dinner by reducing the number of items included in the package and replacing brand-name products with value products. It was not, in other words, the result of the White Houses awesomeness.
As for the idea that the underlying issue is dead, the president seems to know better. Consider his exchange with Bret Baier during the Republicans Fox News interview Wednesday night.
Link to tweet
.......By Trumps reasoning, GOP officials and candidates have struggled because they havent talked about the cost-of-living challenges facing American consumers. That might make him feel better, but the underlying issue isnt rhetorical, its practical.
Republicans can use this new word all the time and it wont change the fact the party, with total control over federal policymaking, has failed spectacularly to address one of the key issues that elevated them to power in the first place.
Democrats scored election victories, not by mentioning affordability, but by shining a light on the GOPs substantive failures on the issue and offering an alternative.
The longer Trump fails to understand this, the more often he and his party will suffer political and electoral consequences.