Tamara Keith

He's called affordability a Democratic con job and a hoax, but yesterday at the White House dialed it back a little.

The most recent numbers show the inflation rate in September was the same as it was during former President Biden's last month in office.

Tamara Keith, NPR News.

Yeah.

In his second term, President Trump has done very little domestic travel aimed at pitching his policies to the American people.

In fact, he's done way more travel to sporting events than going out in the country and making his case.

A senior White House official I spoke with who was not authorized to speak publicly readily acknowledged that this sort of messaging travel has been lacking.

and said the president would be ramping it up late this year and into next year, starting with today's trip to Pennsylvania, which is to a competitive congressional district.

Well, the senior White House official I spoke to said that the president will be balancing talking about what they see as real economic good news with an acknowledgment that there's more work to do.

And just ask President Biden about the perils of telling people that, well, actually, the economy is fine when their cost of living is way up.

Getting the tone right on the economy is something presidents have often struggled with.

Trump himself has been a bit off message.

Take this from a cabinet meeting last week.

And inflation did get alarmingly high under Biden, but then it slowed down.

The most recent inflation numbers show that the rate in September was the same as it was during Biden's last month in office.

It's a good question, and I'd say that you can never be certain what Trump will say until he says it.

But in recent weeks, we've seen a lot of officials all the way up to the vice president asking for patience, saying it will take time for the president's policies to hit the economy.

White House economist Kevin Hassett was on CNBC yesterday and said people with income from tips and overtime should get tax refunds next year.

But the polls are a problem.

Trying to turn that around before the midterms is part of what Trump's doing out on the road today.