A conservative Texas mom who voted for President Donald Trump slammed his effort to address the affordability crisis as an insulting "public relations spectacle."
The president's economic approval rating dropped to his worst ever, at 31 percent, as he hit the road this week for the first stop in his affordability tour to reassure anxious Americans about higher costs of living, but USA Today columnist Nicole Russell gave his performance a big thumbs-down.
"I voted for President Donald Trump, and I don't regret it," Russell wrote. "But some days, I get tired of his banter and smears. They're prosaic and stupid and they usually don't solve any problems or showcase progress, even if there has been."
She said the concept of the tour was "tone deaf," saying that Americans could decide for themselves whether prices were affordable or not.
"I have four kids; I need life to be as affordable as possible, just like most American families do," Russell wrote. "But either America is affordable right now, or Trump is instituting policies that are helping make America affordable. There is no need for a public relations spectacle – if Trump is confident in his policies, and I think he should be, or he should be willing to make changes where necessary."
Instead, she wrote, the president mocked the concept of affordability and complained that Democrats had made up the idea to make him look bad, although he also conceded that "prices are too high," which he blamed on former President Joe Biden, and Russell said the messaging was so bad she wished for a different messenger.
"If I could have a Republican president who's as articulate as Barack Obama, as effective as Ronald Reagan and as charismatic as John F. Kennedy, I'd manufacture this, but I cannot," she wrote. "At the end of the day, I'm just a voter − just like you."
Russell pointed out that Trump campaigned on a promise to fix affordability, which she said had lingered since the Covid-19 pandemic, and she praised his accomplishments – including tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and a record-high stock market – but said the president must address high costs of living or watch his Republican majorities evaporate.
"If Trump is confident in these changes and feels he must go on a tour, then he should use that chance to articulate them better, not make fun of the idea that Americans want greater affordability," Russell wrote. "How did he expect an in-person 'tour' criticizing Democrats for using the term 'affordability' to be effective messaging? It's not."
"There's nothing wrong with wanting to live in an affordable America. That's the dream," the columnist added. "Trump can make it so, but not this way."