Trump’s rhetoric about affordability turns into an anti-immigrant rant

Amna Nawaz:

President Trump was on the road in Pennsylvania last night to address affordability, an issue that has dragged down his approval ratings. But at the event, the president returned to campaign mode, delivering a speech that lasted more than an hour and a half and included a rant about immigrants.

To discuss this, we now turn to Democratic strategist Amecia Cross and Republican Tiffany Smiley, the former US Senate candidate from Washington state.

Welcome to both. Thank you for being with us.

Amecia Cross, Democratic strategist:

Thank you.

Tiffany Smiley (R), Former Senate Candidate from Washington: Thanks for having me.

Amna Nawaz:

So, for anyone who missed last night’s speech, the president’s remarks, here’s just a portion of what President Trump had to say, including confirmation of what he said earlier about Haiti and African countries during the 2018 meeting that was later widely publicized. I listen.

President Donald Trump:

We had a meeting. And I say, why do we only take people from dirty countries, right?

(He laughed)

Donald Trump:

Why don’t we have some people from Norway and Sweden, just a few? Let’s get a little bit of Denmark. Would you mind sending some people to us? Send us some nice people. Do you mind, but we always receive people from Somalia, which are disaster places, right? Dirty, filthy, disgusting, and full of crime.

Amna Nawaz:

Tiffany also described other countries, including Afghanistan and Somalia, as hell. This has been described as a speech about affordability. Is this what voters want to hear about now?

Tiffany smiley:

Well, look, President Trump was elected because we had an immigration crisis. We had open, porous borders, with illegal immigrants, terrorists, criminals, and drugs flowing freely from our southern border into the United States of America.

And so, under President Trump, President Trump and the Republicans have delivered the most secure border in American history. And I’m simply – Donald Trump is Donald Trump. And what he’s trying to say is, if you want to come here, come here legally. And if you’re coming here, we want you to love America, work, give back, and be part of the system.

He doesn’t want criminals and terrorists to come and destroy our country or people who hate our country. That’s simply what he says. He has delivered on his promises to the American people to secure the border and stop drugs and fentanyl from flowing into or entering our communities and causing harm and chaos.

Amna Nawaz:

Amicia, for Tiffany, this isn’t necessarily new language from the president. Will he return to what worked for his base in the past?

Amicia Cross:

It’s completely back to what worked. Trump tends toward culture wars because he has no other means.

We know that prices of everyday goods have risen since he took office. We know that his tariff strategy did nothing but tax the American people. We know that the Big Beautiful Bill Act is the largest wealth transfer the United States has ever seen. People are having difficulty paying their rent. They cannot afford housing.

They can’t buy things at the grocery store. It sparks a conversation that he knows isn’t a dog whistle. This is racism in every sense of the word. When Trump calls places where black people live, or countries outside the United States where black people live or have majority populations, shithole countries, he knows what he’s doing when he says it.

He knows that it is a rallying cry for those who see America as a land of opportunity for whites only. This is a man who has used the apartheid platform before. And it’s a man he continues to use when asked to talk about why his policies haven’t worked.

People in red states, blue states, purple states, and every color in between said affordability is their main issue. But he gets there and does what he’s done time and time again, which is criticize groups of color.

And the point that was made a moment ago that I think is really frustrating is that when these Somalis are attacked specifically, they are citizens of this country, many of them came here as refugees, and with that refugee status, they now have families here who have gone through this process, who are living and contributing and working in their communities, who have been talked about by the governors of the states in which they reside, who are business leaders, many of whom are contributing members of the community.

They have no criminal records and are again citizens of this country.

Amna Nawaz:

Tiffany, up to this point, Amicia is talking about affordability being a top concern for many voters, and the president has already touched on it. He said prices are coming down. Some have done so, but inflation remains stubbornly high year after year.

He continues to call it a Democratic hoax. So, there’s a big gap between what people feel, what they’re worried about, and what the president says. Why?

Tiffany smiley:

Yeah, it kind of reminds me of Joe Biden when he described the Biden economy, which I think was his downfall, because the American people knew that the Biden economy, simply wasn’t good for hard-working Americans.

But President Trump has been very clear in his approach to the new buzzword, affordability, or lowering the cost of living. He wants to lower prices and increase salaries. It’s simple. And I think we need to go back and look at what President Trump inherited. He truly inherited an economy that was in absolute chaos.

He inherited Democrats who were saying inflation was transitory, while spending trillions of dollars in additional spending and massively strengthening government, really bringing us to the brink of economic failure and ruin in this country. This is what President Trump inherited.

But I will warn Republicans, because as the midterms approach, they are going to have to deliver on affordability for the American people. The American people are going to have to be able to go to the grocery store and feel like I still have money in my bank account.

It is very expensive there. I know. I have three growing boys who love steak, and ground beef costs about $10 a pound. But it’s going in the right direction. I think this time next year we may have a very different conversation.

But Republicans can’t just wish this away. They need to roll up their sleeves, partner with President Trump, and start tackling the affordability crisis. President Trump is also huge on energy independence. I believe this plays a role in lowering gas prices, which in turn will help lower grocery prices for hard-working Americans, so there is a lot to be accomplished.

This was only President Trump’s first year. He has three more years to achieve these results, and they are trending and looking positive going forward.

Amna Nawaz:

Amicia, we’ve seen Democrats who have relied on this affordability message score some big special election victories, in a number of recent races.

And Miami just elected its first Democratic mayor in 28 years. Democrats flipped the Georgia state seat blue. Will this be the main message for Democrats moving forward? I’ll let you respond to what I heard from Tiffany as well.

Amicia Cross:

definitely.

I mean, affordability is going to be the main message, because people’s personal economics are being affected greatly. I agree with Tiffany on one point. Things will be different this time next year, and they will be different because America will be blue.

What we will see is a wave of people voting Democratic, largely because they saw the president ignoring their crises. He is asking them to ignore what they see before their eyes. Affordability is not a feeling. You either can pay your rent or you can’t. Affordability is not a feeling. You either can put food on the table for your kids or you can’t.

Affordability is not a feeling when healthcare is affordable for everyone. Instead of using the policies proposed to create an economy that works for the American people, it creates an economy that works for the rich and powerful and leaves everyone out.

We’ve seen this with student loan restructuring. We saw that when he decided what was considered professional and what was not professional when it came to who could participate in American education. We see it every time this president decides he’s going to take a certain group of people and put a target on their back.

Right now, they are immigrants. It was black people. It was women. So when you talk about people being less able to afford things, we also have to look at the fact that over 600,000 black women are now out of work and more and more people are out of work or underemployed every day.

So, no, there are no wage increases that we are seeing. We are seeing widespread layoffs. We see people not knowing where their next meal is coming from because they don’t know where their next job is coming from. This is a president who doesn’t want to address any of that. And it’s really frustrating to hear it recast in any way other than the reality Americans currently live in.

Amna Nawaz:

Well, there’s a lot to discuss here. We hope you get back together so we can continue this conversation. We’ll have to leave it here for now.

Amicia Cross and Tiffany Smiley, thank you for joining us.