Trump calls Democrats’ affordability messaging a ‘con job’

President Donald Trump has showered Democrats with “affordability” messages that have boosted support for left-wing candidates in the 2025 election cycle, calling it a “fake narrative” that “means nothing to anyone.”

“You name it. Affordability. I inherited the worst inflation in history. There was no affordability. Nobody could afford anything. Prices were too high,” Trump said Tuesday at his administration’s monthly Cabinet meeting, the last meeting of 2025.

“But the word affordability is a Democrat scam,” Trump continued.

The Cabinet meeting was Trump’s ninth meeting of his second term, matching the number of all Cabinet meetings former President Joe Biden held during his four years in the Oval Office.

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Affordability was the key campaign platform in a handful of high-profile elections held last month during the off-year period. Democrats emerge victorious from 2025 election cycle; They included a win for socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani to become the next mayor of New York City, and Democrats winning the only two gubernatorial elections this year, in Virginia and New Jersey.

In New Jersey, voters say the state has very high taxes and economy These were the top issues heading into polling places, according to data from the Fox News Voter Poll last month. According to Fox polling data, half of Virginia voters report that their top issue is the economy; That number is more than twice as many as those who cite healthcare as their top concern.

While in New York City, affordability was the top concern for voters in the notoriously expensive Big Apple, according to previous Fox News Voter Poll data.

This week, left-wing Democrats and Republicans are fiercely fighting to win a congressional seat in Tennessee, where the Democratic candidate known as “Tennessee’s AOC” is building support among voters in the deep-red state.

Trump lamented during the Cabinet meeting that his administration had lowered prices for citizens after inheriting the “worst inflation in history” under the Biden administration, including making big deals with foreign industries to create U.S. jobs and tariff policies aimed at bringing parity to the U.S.’s chronic trade deficit with foreign countries.

“Our prices are really low right now for energy and gasoline. Electricity goes down. When that goes down, everything goes down. But the word affordability is a Democrat hoax. They say that, and then they move on to the next topic, and everyone thinks, ‘Oh, their prices were lower.’ No, they had the worst inflation in the history of our country,” Trump continued.

In Tennessee, Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other high-profile Republicans made a mad dash to rally support for the Trump-backed congressional candidate Matt Van Epps While facing off against Democrat Tennessee State Rep. Aftyn Behn, He has been compared to socialist politicians like New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

Matt Van Epps and Aftyn Behn (Brett Carlsen/Getty Images; George Walker IV/AP Photo)

The Tennessee race is a special election to fill Republican Rep. Mark Green’s seat in the 7th congressional district following his resignation from Congress in July. Republicans had previously easily won the seat in the deep-red state, but recent left-wing victories in November’s elections have given Democrats momentum to flip the seat blue.

Johnson headlined rallies in the state for Van Epps and Trump was called to the rallies, as well as posting social media messages supporting Tennessee voters’ rejection of the Democratic candidate.

“The whole world is watching Tennessee right now, and they’re watching the region,” Trump said during a call.

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Polls show a close contest between Van Epps and Behn in a race that will again serve as a bellwether ahead of the highly anticipated 2026 midterms.

Behn, similar to her Democratic colleagues in the November election, has made affordability one of her key campaign platforms.

President Donald Trump met with New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

“Are you angry about high grocery prices? Worried about healthcare costs? Frustrated by tariffs? Then December 2nd is your day to shake up Washington,” he said in the latest ad of his campaign.

“The struggle to afford groceries, healthcare, and rent is life we ​​must accept,” Behn wrote in a Substack post in November. “Through this election we have the opportunity to tell those in power that we have stopped begging for crumbs, that we are no longer sold out, that we are dealing with the high cost of living and the chaos.”

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Meanwhile, Democrats like Ocasio-Cortez and former Vice President Al Gore have backed Behn’s campaign, making Tennessee an unlikely epicenter of another campaign showdown pitting a leftist candidate promoting affordability against a Republican.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is among a handful of Democrats backing Tennessee state Rep. Aftyn Behn for Congress. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

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Asked about Democrats’ affordability messaging and whether Trump’s messaging has failed with voters considering the Tennessee race, the White House argued that Democrats “don’t have a leg to stand on on affordability.”

White House spokesman Kush Desai told Fox Digital: “The idea that Democrats, who spent four years during Biden’s presidency creating the worst inflation crisis in a generation, have a leg to fall on when it comes to affordability is beyond ridiculous. Americans remember how President Trump created historic jobs, wages, and economic growth during the first term of his agenda, and Americans know that same agenda restored working-class prosperity in President Trump’s second term.”

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.