Flanked by Christmas trees in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump addressed American voters Wednesday night, attempting to assuage concerns over what many voters see as a worsening affordability crisis ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, in an effort to keep and expand a Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“We’re bringing our economy back from the brink of ruin,” the president contended. “The last administration and their allies in Congress looted our treasury for trillions of dollars, driving up prices and everything at levels never seen before. I am bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast,” he boasted. “Let’s look at the facts. Under the Biden administration, car prices rose 22% and, in many states, 30% or more. Gasoline rose 30% to 50%. Hotel rates rose 37%. Airfares rose 31%. Now, under our leadership, they are all coming down and coming down fast,” the president declared. “Democrat politicians also sent the cost of groceries soaring, but we are solving that too. The price of a Thanksgiving turkey was down 33% compared to the Biden last year. The price of eggs is down 82% since March, and everything else is falling rapidly. And it’s not done yet, but boy, are we making progress.”

American workers’ wages also plummeted under Biden, dropping by $3,000. Under the Trump administration, the president asserted, factory workers, construction workers, and miners have seen their wages rise by thousands of dollars. “For the first time in years, wages are rising much faster than inflation. Remember that rate. The wages — just look at it — wages are going up much faster than inflation,” the president emphasized. “Very importantly, there are more people working today than at any time in American history, and 100% of all jobs created since I took office have been in the private sector,” he added. “Think of that, 100% of all jobs have been in the private sector rather than government, which is the only way to make a country powerful and great.”

The president also boasted of securing over $18 trillion dollars in foreign investments into the U.S., noting that major corporations are preparing to open factories, production plants, and research facilities to hire American workers. He further asserted that his controversial use of tariffs to rebalance international trade have already netted the U.S. billions of dollars, which American workers would be seeing reflected in tax refunds. “Next year, you will also see the results of the largest tax cuts in American history that were really accomplished through our great Big Beautiful Bill, perhaps the most sweeping legislation ever passed in Congress,” he continued, championing his administration’s signature piece of legislation. “We wrapped 12 different bills up into one beautiful bill that includes no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security for our great seniors. Under these cuts, many families will be saving between $11,000 and $20,000 a year, and next spring is projected to be the largest tax refund season of all time because of tariffs, along with the just-passed one Big Beautiful Bill.”

Another area which has arrested the Trump administration’s attention is energy costs. “For years, the radical left Democrats exploited the green energy scam as an excuse to funnel many billions of dollars into their own massive slush funds as their energy restrictions drastically drove up prices and they drove them up at record levels,” the president observed. He noted that electricity costs under Biden and congressional Democrats “surged 30% to 100%” and the “the typical family lost $5,000 to $10,000 in higher energy costs. Think of that, $5,000 to $10,000 you lost on day one.” Under the Trump administration, however, the national average cost of gasoline has plummeted, falling below $3.00 per gallon, and as low as $1.99 per gallon in some states, the president said.

The president also addressed the cost of housing, which has reached crisis levels, especially for young buyers. “The Democrat inflation disaster — again, the worst in the history of our country — also robbed millions of Americans of home ownership and indeed the American dream. The yearly cost of a typical new mortgage increase by $15,000 under Democrat rule in 11 months,” the president recounted. “We’ve already gotten that annual cost down by $3,000, and it’s coming down a lot lower. Wait till you see, the numbers are going to be shocking,” he continued. “I’ll soon announce our next chairman of the Federal Reserve, someone who believes in lower interest rates by a lot. And mortgage payments will be coming down even further early in the new year.”

In 2024, the president campaigned heavily on immigration issues, pledging to secure the border and conduct mass deportations across the nation. On Wednesday night, he pointed to the damage done to Americans economically by mass immigration and, in particular, the influx of illegal immigration permitted by the Biden administration. “A major factor in driving up housing costs was the colossal border invasion. We have never been invaded. This is the worst thing that … the Biden administration did to our country is the invasion at the border,” the president lamented. “The last administration and their allies in Congress brought in millions and millions of migrants and gave them taxpayer-funded housing, while your rent and housing costs skyrocketed.”

“Over 60% of growth in the rental market came from foreign migrants. At the same time, illegal aliens stole American jobs and flooded emergency rooms, getting free health care and education paid for by you, the American taxpayer. They also increased the cost of law enforcement by numbers so high that they are not even to be mentioned,” the president noted. “For the first time in 50 years, we are now seeing reverse migration, as migrants go back home, leaving more housing and more jobs for Americans,” he continued. “In the year before my election, all net creation of jobs was going to foreign migrants. Since I took office, 100% of all net job creation has gone to American born citizens 100%,” the president pointed out. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released a report this week showing an increase in jobs going to American workers, particularly in health care, construction, and social assistance.

The president’s emphasis on affordability issues comes as numerous polls show economic concerns are the top priority for voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Many of those polls also suggest that voters are disappointed with the Trump administration’s perceived failure to address financial burdens for everyday Americans and are instead looking to the same Democrats who crippled the nation economically under the Biden administration to make things more affordable.

A “Strength in Numbers” survey last week, for example, reported that voters who rate economic concerns as their top priority prefer Democrats over Republicans in a generic ballot, by a 12-point margin. An NBC News Decision Desk poll published this week found that Americans considered their personal financial situations to be worse today than this same time last year. According to a Marist poll released Wednesday, 61% of Americans say that the economy is “not working well” for them personally, up from 57% in May. Additionally, 70% of surveyed Americans said that cost-of-living in their area is unaffordable, which Marist noted “is the highest proportion of Americans with this view since Marist first asked this question in 2011.”

In comments to The Washington Stand, FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter explained, “The president is right, the American people experienced historic inflation during his predecessor’s term,” although he noted that the Trump administration “has done much to address the underlying conditions responsible for inflation, like lifting the regulatory burden on energy production, securing the border and deporting illegal immigrants, cutting taxes, securing significant foreign investment in the re-industrialization of America, and more.” Carpenter continued, “These reforms represent a broad agenda meant to make life more affordable for hard working Americans — the sort of agenda the president and Republicans will need to stick to if they want to retain control of Congress after the 2026 midterms.”

“Poll after poll shows economic uncertainty — specifically over the affordability of things like food, housing, and health care — remain among the top concerns for voters. Unfortunately for President Trump, voters have given him relatively poor ratings despite all that has been done to improve the cost of living,” Carpenter observed. He cited an Emerson College survey in which less than a quarter (22%) of respondents gave the Trump administration an “A” grade on handling the economy, while over one third (36%) gave the president an “F” grade.

“Economies are complex systems, and there are no magic bullets to undo the historic inflation of the Biden years. Republicans will have to make the case to voters that they understand their frustration, have worked to address the issues, and that relief is on the way,” Carpenter opined. “There is time for them to make this case, but with the election of socialists, like New York Mayor Mamdani, voters have shown that they are deeply concerned about how the economy affects kitchen-table costs.”