While President Donald Trump has struggled to successfully counter Democrats’ recent messaging strategy around affordability – which has handed the party a series of blowout victories in last month’s off-year elections – his attempts are now being challenged “even in places that once functioned as Trump’s best bulwarks,” Salon reported Sunday.
The Democratic Party scored a series of victories last month that handed it two governorships, the mayoral seat in a highly contested race in New York City, New York, and additional state House seats in two states, one of which netted the party a supermajority. And, nearly every Democratic candidate leaned heavily into messaging around affordability.
Trump’s response has been mixed; he’s claimed that the Republican Party fights harder than the Democratic Party to improve affordability, while at the same time, has called the word a “Democrat scam” and a “con job.” And, while Trump has caught his share of flack for his mixed response to rising economic hardships, the Trump administration is now facing pushback in reliably pro-Trump spaces.
“Kevin Hassett, the director of Trump’s National Economic Council, couldn’t even catch a break on Fox News, where host Martha MacCallum grilled him this week about polling that places responsibility for the economy squarely at Trump’s feet,” wrote Salon senior staff writer Sophia Tesfaye in Salon’s report.
“In another recent Fox News segment, Jesse Watters admitted bluntly: ‘It’s Trump’s economy now … he owns it now.’ Even when trying to prop up Trump on the economy, Fox accidentally highlighted the strength of Biden’s policy. One recent Fox segment credited Trump’s tariffs for creating 400 factory jobs at an Alabama cabinet manufacturer – even though that factory had announced the new jobs during the previous administration.”