President Donald Trump addresses McDonald's franchise holders on November 17, 2025
Following this month’s Democratic election victories -- which even Fox News suggested were due to concerns over affordability -- the network is attempting to craft a coherent message on the issue from various Trump administration policies and announcements.
For instance, a November 18 segment on Fox & Friends noted that President Donald Trump is working to “alleviate food import tariffs,” making “efforts to address high mortgage rates,” and considering $2,000 “rebate checks.”
Yet these three solutions that the Fox report presents as Trump’s plan to “ease” the “affordability crisis” all come in response to issues that Trump has made worse.
LAWRENCE JONES (CO-HOST): Meanwhile, President Trump is looking to make life more affordable for all Americans, eyeing solutions for high costs.
…
MARK MEREDITH (WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT): The White House says one of its major goals remains to make America affordable again. As we know, Americans coast to coast are fed up with the rising cost of living. And with the midterms looming, the White House is also trying to show people what it’s doing publicly.
…
MEREDITH: The administration’s effort includes removing some of the tariffs the president himself imposed on a number of food products, as well as addressing higher mortgage rates, something that of course many people are dealing with. And the president’s teasing the possibility of tariff rebate checks as soon as next year.
The Yale Budget Lab’s latest estimate shows that Trump’s tariffs will cause “price level rises by 1.2% in the short run, representing a loss of $1,700 for the average household,” and the Tax Foundation’s latest estimate says Trump’s tariffs “amount to an average tax increase per US household of $1,200 in 2025 and $1,600 in 2026.”
These Trump tariffs previously had widespread support from Fox, which is already praising the president for lowering them as a “quick fix” on the affordability crisis he made worse.
And during the above Fox & Friends segment, co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt and Lawrence Jones spoke positively of possible stimulus checks, styled as tariff “rebates” even though both The Budget Lab and the Tax Foundation estimate that they will cost far more than the revenue Trump’s tariffs have brought in so far.
Additionally, some of the Trump administration’s proposals to make housing more affordable, including mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and a 50-year mortgage, would likely end up increasing housing costs.
Fox’s scramble to piece together a Trump administration affordability plan comes amid Trump’s own false messaging that he has already solved the affordability crisis.
In a series of Truth Social posts and public remarks he made earlier in November, Trump repeatedly pointed to the cheaper (and significantly smaller) Walmart Thanksgiving dinner bundle for this year to declare victory on the issue of affordability, saying things like: “So the Democrats ‘affordability’ issue is DEAD!” and “We are the affordability, when we are the ones that have done a great job in affordability, not the Democrats.”
More recently, Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed that prices are lower now under his administration.
Reprinted with permission from Media Matters
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