Trump torches Dems' 'fake affordability' pitch – but GOP panic in deep red state hints voters aren't buying it

By Fox News · Fox News

President Donald Trump unleashed on Democrats for their "affordability" messaging that drove support for left-wing candidates in the 2025 election cycle, calling it a "fake narrative" that "doesn't mean anything to anybody." "You just say it. Affordability. I inherited the worst inflation in history. There was no affordability. Nobody could afford anything. The prices were massively high," Trump said Tuesday during his administration's monthly Cabinet meeting – the final such meeting for 2025. "But the word affordability is a con job by the Democrats," Trump continued. The Cabinet meeting marked Trump's ninth in his second term, matching the number of all the full Cabinet meetings former President Joe Biden held during his four years in the Oval Office. SURVEY SAYS: ISSUE THAT HELPED TRUMP AND REPUBLICANS IN 2024 HURT THEM NOW Affordability was the top campaign platform for the handful of high-profile elections held last month during the off-year cycle. Democrats emerged from the 2025 election cycle victorious, including socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani notching a win to become the next mayor of New York City, as well as Democrats winning the only two gubernatorial elections this year, which were held in Virginia and New Jersey. In New Jersey, voters reported that the state's notoriously high taxes and the economy were their top issues heading into the polling stations, according to Fox News Voter Poll data last month. In Virginia, half of voters reported that the economy was their top issue, more than double the number who reported healthcare as their top concern, according to Fox polling data. In New York City, affordability was by far voters' top concern in the notoriously expensive Big Apple, according to previous Fox News Voter Poll data. This week, left-wing Democrats and Republicans are in a fierce battle to win a congressional seat in Tennessee where the Democratic nominee, known as the "AOC of Tennessee," is building support among voters in the deep red…