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President Trump stated Thursday that “I don’t want to hear about the affordability.” The remark — which immediately turned prime-time cable fodder — got here in the course of a meandering and deceptive response to a query from Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich.
“Groceries are way down. Everything is way down,” Trump falsely claimed. “And the press doesn’t report it. The press reports whatever the con people say. You know, I call the Democrats con men and women. They make up numbers.”
It’s straightforward sufficient for Trump in charge the press when he is in a Q&A session with reporters. It’s tougher when he’s listening to from a voter who is struggling.
That’s why this was an particularly savvy transfer by Fox News anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday.
Baier used his entry to Trump, on the sidelines of a enterprise discussion board in Miami, to learn a message from Regina Foley, a retiree in Greensboro, North Carolina. Foley informed Baier that she was a three-time Trump voter who was apprehensive in regards to the GOP shedding management of Congress subsequent 12 months.
“Something has to be done fast,” Foley wrote to Baier. “I don’t see the best economy right now. Wall Street numbers do not reflect my Main Street money. Please do something, President Trump.”
Her concern about the price of dwelling was tellingly framed as a political downside, not an financial or ethical one. However, it hit proper on the theme of the off-year elections earlier this week. As Axios put it Friday morning, “The affordability crisis, once Biden’s, is now Trump’s.”
Trump’s non-answer to Foley’s concern (he stated costs are “down already,” and the “biggest problem is Republicans don’t talk about it”) made waves on social media. On Baier’s Instagram page, commenters stated issues like “Our groceries are not down” and “Why don’t you come shopping?”
The change underscored that the press is only when it is actually, immediately channeling the general public.
Trump’s potential to speak some individuals into believing up is down, with the help of the right-wing media machine, has been central to his political success. And his “affordability” feedback this week recommend that he sees it as a messaging downside.
The president’s new favorite factor to tout is Walmart’s promotional Thanksgiving meal basket being 25% cheaper than final 12 months. NCS’s Daniel Dale looked into it and defined that the basket’s contents are markedly totally different this 12 months.
GOP radio host Erick Erickson supplied some powerful love for his social gathering yesterday.
“Grocery prices are going up. And now Republicans are perversely doing the same thing Democrats did when they were in office with Joe Biden, saying, ‘No, actually, don’t believe your eyes at the grocery store, prices are coming down!’” Erickson stated on his syndicated radio present.
“That’s not helpful to Americans who are feeling higher grocery costs right now, which is actually happening. The Republicans have gotta figure this out.”