U.S. President Donald Trump walks as he arrives at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey U.S., May 23, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
During Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign — his third as a Republican and fourth overall — he focused heavily on inflation, which he blamed on then-President Joe Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Liberal economist and former New York Times columnist Paul Krugman aggressively defended the Biden Administration's economic policies, emphasizing that the United States enjoyed record-low unemployment during Biden's presidency.
Many voters, however, were thinking about high prices rather than low unemployment, and Trump's promise to lower prices "on Day One" was enough to help him get past the finish line in a close election and defeat Harris by roughly 1.5 percent in the national popular vote.
Ten months into his second presidency, however, Trump is the one being blamed by his critics for high prices. And MS NOW reporter Kevin Frey, in an article published on Thanksgiving Day 2025, emphasizes that the holidays — first Thanksgiving, then Christmas — are a major political liability for the president.
"With Democrats already gearing up for next year's midterms," Frey reports, "they are zeroing in on affordability as a unifying campaign message. And as Republicans argue Trump is lowering inflation, Democrats think the next month — one of the busiest annually for U.S. consumers — will be a touchpoint for voters on that issue."
November 2025's off-year elections brought a long list of victories for Democrats, from double-digit gubernatorial wins in New Jersey and Virginia to three Democratic Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices winning retention elections by a landslide in a crucial swing state that Trump lost to Biden in 2020 but narrowly won in 2024. And Democratic strategists are hoping their party will perform equally well in the 2025 midterms.
Frey points out that the "economic data heading into Thanksgiving and the kickoff of the Christmas shopping season is mixed."
"Overall prices for American consumers continue to rise — despite Trump's assertions to the contrary," Frey notes. "The consumer price index was up 3 percent in September over the year prior…. Of course, there's little risk that Trump would ever be too muted in claiming victory on inflation, affordability, the job market, and stock gains. But recent polls suggest many Americans are underwhelmed by the economy — and are blaming Trump and his sweeping tariffs for making things worse."
Read Kevin Frey's full MS NOW article at this link.