Trump shifts focus to affordability ahead of State of the Union address

Amna Nawaz:

President Trump is in Rome, Georgia today, talking about affordability and the economy, a topic he is expected to highlight again in next week’s State of the Union address.

Our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, has more on this story and joins us now.

So, Liz, as you were writing, the president has been frustrated that he doesn’t get enough credit when it comes to the economy. That’s why he went to Georgia to talk about this. What did he say?

Liz Landers:

Well, today was focused on affordability and economy. This was also a political visit for him. This is a congressional district that will be holding a special election soon, so it’s kind of a one-stone bird here.

He was promoting the stock market. He’s been promoting some recently passed signature legislation.

President Donald Trump:

The big, beautiful bill is essentially a tax cut bill. And when you hear the fake Democrats talking about it, like, oh, the big, nice bill, they try to make fun of it, and they put four years’ worth of good stuff in this bill and everyone says it can’t be done.

Liz Landers:

The president visited a restaurant there and then gave that speech at a steel mill in Georgia.

This was his first local trip on the issue as he spoke about affordability in the economy since he went to Iowa a few weeks ago. But Amna, there were some mixed messages here today. He goes out on a tangent when he gives these speeches sometimes, he was talking about the operation in Venezuela a few weeks ago at the beginning of the year, and he also talks about a number of injustices about issues that he doesn’t think he takes credit for.

So he still sometimes has trouble committing directly to messages.

Amna Nawaz:

Liz, your reporting also showed that his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, held a kind of unusual closed-door strategy session this week to talk about messaging for the midterms. What do we know about it?

Liz Landers:

Yes, a source who participated in the meeting talked to me about this and said that this was an attempt to get Republicans within the administration and outside allies on the same message and talking about the same priorities.

Affordability is currently the No. 1 issue for the White House ahead of the midterm elections, this person said. Susie Wells, chief of staff, spoke about this. So did James Blair, the deputy chief of staff, and then the pollster Tony Fabrizio, who worked with the president for a while. They were among the speakers.

And this Republican said, look, these issues like energy affordability, housing, health care, fuel prices, grocery prices, those are kind of the main principles that they’re focusing on right now.

The president has now been in office for more than a year, this person said, and there are only so many things he, the president, can blame Biden, his predecessor, for at this point, and acknowledge that they need to go out and sell their affordability message to the American public right now.

And it was about this kind of coordination, and also, I would add, Amna, getting Cabinet members out, not on the campaign trail per se, but across the country to promote these messages.

Amna Nawaz:

At the same time, we know that Democrats have also somewhat come up with affordability as one of their core messages heading into the midterms. What do we know about how effective it is?

Liz Landers:

It is likely to be effective, based on polling.

Look, the White House doesn’t actually have bad economic numbers to promote. The January jobs report was better than expected. Gas prices are falling in some areas of the country. In Georgia, I was looking at the average gas price there of $2.71 per AAA, which is lower than it was last year.

The average Georgia citizen will also save more than $3,000 on their taxes this year from the signature tax bill that passed. That’s according to the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation.

But when you look at the poll numbers on how Americans actually feel, Fox News conducted a poll, which found that 59 percent of Americans disapprove of President Trump’s handling of his job on the economy; And 68% say he’s not spending enough time on the economy, so we’re back to the kind of dual messaging that the White House has been dealing with between foreign policy and domestic issues as well.

Amna Nawaz:

Meanwhile, we should stress, it’s February.

Liz Landers:

Yes.

Amna Nawaz:

We’re talking about messaging strategy sessions around the November midterm elections in the White House. Why? Why is this a concern for them?

Liz Landers:

Because the margins are so thin in Congress. Currently, Republicans only have a four-seat majority in the House of Representatives. Historically, the president loses midterm elections.

President Trump saw this in 2018. Republicans lost 40 seats in the House of Representatives in that election. This has also given Democrats the ability to initiate some impeachment trials, which we know President Trump is already considering.

He’s said in some of his recent speeches to Republicans that you’ve got to win the midterms, because if we don’t win the midterms, it’s going to be — I mean, they’re going to find a reason to impeach me.

So we know that that’s kind of a concern for President Trump right now. Also, if Democrats win control, they can do a number of other things. They could disrupt other types of White House legislative priorities, as well as investigate the Trump administration.

Amna Nawaz:

This is our White House correspondent, Liz Landers.

Liz, thank you.

Liz Landers:

naturally.