President Donald Trump heads to Pennsylvania on Tuesday to change his message on the "affordability" crisis that he's spent the past year denying existed. Now that he's admitting that costs are up, inflation still isn't great, health care will be increasing dramatically and Americans continue to struggle. Trump's solution has been to blame former President Joe Biden, and his staff is reportedly begging him to stop doing it.
The New Republic’s Hafiz Rashid wrote that Trump’s staff worries the strategy to blame Biden is backfiring with the American people. Trump bragged last year that the economy was improving in 2024 because the country anticipated his November win, but now that the economy has faltered again, he is back to blaming Biden.
Trump bragged last year that the economy was improving in 2024 because the country anticipated his November win. However, now that the economy has faltered again, he's back to blaming Biden.
CNN's Stephen Collinson wrote Monday that Trump's answer for everything since taking office has been to "blame Biden." He repeated it in his Politico interview, claiming, "We inherited a total mess..."
“Joe Biden is no longer a threat to them because he’s out of office, he’s never going to be in office again,” one Trump adviser told CNN. “You’ve got to feel their pain. You’ve got to talk about it every day.”
But talking about a bad economy and “feeling people’s pain” without placing blame means admitting he is, at least in part, responsible. Rashid noted that even Trump cannot keep his story straight: he announced a $12 billion bailout for farmers, raising the question of why such a bailout is needed if the economy is supposedly strong, and again his answer was to blame Biden.
A poll from late November showed that only 24% of Americans believe that he's helped lower prices. While 49 percent think Trump has done more to make prices worse.
"Trump is even losing Republican allies in Congress on the economy," Rashid cited.
To connect with voters, Trump would also have to offer solutions, and thus far, Trump's ideas have been about investing in artificial intelligence, which will reduce human jobs, and raise tariffs, which have increased costs.
After claiming everything was going well for all of 2025, his new idea is to travel the country and give speeches about the economy. There's just one problem with that.
"It may not be enough," closed Rashid, "especially in the likely event that Trump finds another excuse to blame Biden on the trip. That won’t convince working people, who can see prices shooting up with their own eyes."