Trump’s Republican Party insists there’s no affordability crisis and dismisses election losses

NEW YORK– Nearly two weeks after Republicans lost elections in Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, many Republican leaders insist there is nothing wrong with the party’s policies, its message or President Donald Trump’s leadership.

Trump says Democrats and the media are misleading voters concerned about high costs and the economy. Republican officials, eager to avoid another defeat in next fall’s midterms, are encouraging candidates to fully embrace the president and talk more about his accomplishments.

These are key takeaways from a series of private conversations, briefings and formal talking points involving key Republican policymakers in Washington, including the White House, following their party’s November 4 defeat. Their assessment highlights how much the fate of the Republican Party is tied to Trump, a term-limited president who insists the economy under his watch has never been stronger.

And this, even as a growing number of voters report a different reality in their lives.

But with a few exceptions, Trump’s lieutenants who direct the Republican Party’s political strategy have no desire to question his wishes or beliefs.

“Republicans head into next year more united than ever behind President Trump,” said Republican National Committee spokesperson Kiersten Pels. “The party is fully aligned with its America First agenda and the results it delivers for the American people. President Trump’s policies are popular, he drives turnout, and standing with him is the strongest path to victory.”

Trump’s endorsement, however, is similar in terms to former presidents Barack Obama, a Democrat, and George W. Bush, a Republican. Their parties suffered significant losses in the midterm elections.

Since the election, the White House has quietly decided to shift its messaging to focus more on affordability.

Much of the first year of Trump’s second term has been dominated by his trade wars, his crackdown on illegal immigration, his decision to send National Guard troops into American cities and the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

Trump has spoken more about affordability since Election Day. On Friday, he cut tariffs on beef and other products that consumers say are too expensive. But Trump’s main message is that the economy is doing better and consumer prices are lower than the media are reporting. It’s pretty much the same message that Democratic President Joe Biden and his allies have spent years promoting, without much success.

“We have a great economy and prices are coming down,” Trump told reporters Sunday evening before boarding Air Force One to return to the White House from his Florida resort.

He blamed Democrats for an economy he described as having “the highest inflation in the history of our country. I have now brought it back to normal and it continues to fall.”

In a social media post Friday, Trump said of the Republican Party: “We are the Party of Affordability! »

He also claimed that the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner this year would be reduced by 25%, but that figure is incorrect. Food prices are 2.7% higher than they were in 2024.

Economic concerns were voters’ top concern in this month’s election, according to the AP Voter Poll.

Republican strategist Doug Heye said Trump’s approach is not necessarily helpful for the Republican Party or its candidates, who already face a difficult political environment in 2026, when voters will decide the balance of power in Congress. Historically, the party occupying the White House has suffered significant losses in non-presidential elections.

“Republicans need to make it clear to voters that they understand what they’re going through and they’re trying to do something about it,” Heye said. “That can be difficult to do when the president is throwing a non-metaphorical wrecking ball into parts of the White House, distracting much of Washington and the media.”

“Candidates cannot afford to be distracted,” Heye added. “As we’ve seen in recent elections, particularly in Virginia, if you don’t talk about what voters are talking about, they’ll leave you out.”

The reality outside Washington suggests that not all Republican candidates share Trump’s vision.

New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives who launched her campaign for governor last week, said there was no doubt about the top issue for her constituents: affordability. She also downplayed her party’s focus on conservative cultural priorities, including transgender athletes, which were a Republican priority in the recent Virginia gubernatorial race.

“Certainly I support and protect women’s and girls’ sports, but as you see in all of our messages, we focus on the main issues, which every conversation with voters is about high taxes and spending, unaffordability,” Stefanik told the Associated Press.

Stefanik offered a nuanced perspective on Trump’s leadership.

She was not willing to criticize any of the president’s major policies or major government decisions. But Stefanik, who fought for Trump’s agenda as leader of the Republican Party in Congress, shifted his focus to New York’s Democratic governor when asked about the strength of the Republican Party’s support for the president.

“I feel like our party is fully united behind the firing of Kathy Hochul,” Stefanik said before highlighting New York voters’ support for Trump in the recent election.

Although Stefanik said it was important for the governor to have “an effective working relationship” with Trump, she declined to say whether she would support a hypothetical decision by Trump to send the National Guard to New York, as he has threatened. “This wouldn’t be necessary if there was a Republican governor,” she said.

Last year, Stefanik called on the National Guard to help control pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University.

The Republican National Committee, which serves as the political arm of the Trump White House, has issued a series of talking points that ignore recent election defeats as a consequence of the Democratic voter advantage in states where the most important elections were held.

The talking points, obtained by The Associated Press, ignore Republican losses in Georgia and Pennsylvania. They also overestimate Trump’s political strength, saying he is more popular than Obama and Bush were at the same time during their terms in office.

This claim has found echo in conservative media in recent days.

An analysis of an AP poll finds that Trump’s approval is no higher than that of Obama or Bush at a similar point in their second terms.

Trump’s approval, at 36% in a November poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, is slightly higher than it was at this point in his first term. But Obama and Bush’s approval ratings were both in the low 40s at this point in their second terms, according to a Gallup poll, which is similar to Trump’s in Gallup’s last approval poll in October.

For Obama and Bush, their parties suffered heavy losses in the ensuing midterm elections.

The Republican message developed by Trump’s team, however, is redoubling its efforts to support the president and his policies.

The recent election “was not a referendum on President Trump, Republicans in Congress, or the MAGA agenda,” the RNC talking points state. To win in 2026, Make America Great Again voters “will need to show up at the polls; President Trump and the Republicans will get it done.”

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Associated Press writers Chris Megerian in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Amelia Thomson DeVeaux and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.