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President Donald Trump declared the U.S. economy is strong and holds an “A plus plus plus plus” grade under his leadership despite inheriting a “mess” from the Biden administration.
“The word affordability … I inherited a mess,” Trump told Politico in a sit-down interview published Tuesday. “I inherited a total mess. Prices were at an all-time high when I came in. Prices are coming down substantially. Look at energy. You and I discussed before the interview, energy … energy has come down incredibly. When energy comes down, everything … ’cause it’s so much bigger than any other subject. But energy has come down incredibly. Prices are all coming down. It’s been 10 months. It’s amazing what we’ve done.”
The Trump White House is facing a crisis over its economic messaging after Democrats swept a series of elections in November while campaigning on platforms focused on “affordability,” lowering the current cost-of-living prices skyrocketing from grocery store shelves to rent, while touting a vote for Democrats was a vote against Trump and his policies.
The Democratic election wins earlier in 2025 — which included the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia and the mayoral race in New York City — are viewed as a bellwether ahead of the 2026 midterms, lighting a spark among Republicans to fine-tune their messaging on the economy.
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The White House and Trump increasingly have amplified blame for the current affordability woes on former President Joe Biden’s leadership as voters’ financial anxiety grows at peak holiday shopping season.
“Putting an end to Joe Biden’s inflation and affordability crisis has been a Day One priority for President Trump,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told Fox News Digital Monday morning when asked about the White House’s message on affordability.
“Every Trump administration official has been playing their part over the past year to deliver on this priority, from slashing costly regulations to securing historic drug pricing deals — efforts that have cooled inflation and raised real wages,” he continued. “Much work remains, but President Trump is highlighting the meaningful progress that his Administration has made and will continue to make to turn Joe Biden’s economic disaster around.”
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Voters have reported they are spooked by the current state of costs in the U.S.
Some 76% of voters, however, reported that they view the economy negatively, up from the 67% who reported the same in July, and the 70% who said the same at the end of Biden’s term, a November Fox News national survey found.
The survey found that voters overwhelmingly blamed Trump over Biden. About twice as many voters polled reported that Trump, rather than Biden, is responsible for the current economy, with three times as many voters reporting that Trump’s economic policies have hurt them, which is on par with their feelings during Biden’s final year in office.
Former Biden administration spokesman Andrew Bates, who served as the Biden White House’s deputy press secretary, pointed to the voter survey when asked for response to the Trump administration’s heightened comments, pinning blame for economic concerns on policies held over from the Biden White House.
“Democrats and the Biden-Harris Administration warned Trump against making the biggest health care cuts in history so billionaires could get tax breaks; just like they warned against the tariffs that are a record-level tax hike on working people,” Bates said in an emailed comment to Fox News Digital. “Maybe Donald Trump can’t remember prices were lower last year. That’s what I wondered when he started building himself an assisted living ballroom.”
The White House on Tuesday told Fox News Digital: “The fact of the matter is that Joe Biden inflicted a generational economic crisis on the American people.
“Turning this crisis around has been a Day One priority for the Trump administration, which has already delivered cooled inflation, multi-year low gas prices, trillions in investments, and historic drug pricing deals to dramatically cut costs for American patients,” White House spokesman Desai said. “Biden flacks who insisted Biden was in absolute peak health and wasn’t dropping out of the 2024 presidential race just days before Biden did just that need to get a grip on reality.”
Trump continued in his Politico interview that he grades the current economy as “A-plus.”
“I do want to talk about the economy, sir, here at home. And … and I wonder what grade you would give your economy,” Politico asked Trump.
Trump: “A-plus.”
Politico: “A-plus?”
Trump responded: “Yeah, A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus.”
The Biden administration oversaw the highest inflation to rock the nation in 40 years, 30-year mortgage rates that rocketed to roughly 8%, up from under 3%, and the sharpest rise in interest rates in decades.
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Trump hammered again in the interview that Democrats created the current affordability woes while stressing that they are the party that would bring prices down.
“You talk about affordability, the Democrats love to say affordability, afford … but then they never talk about it,” he said. “They’re the ones that gave us the high prices. I’m the one that’s bringing them down.”
Trump is set to travel to Pennsylvania Tuesday, a key battleground state that helped deliver him his 2024 victory, to promote his administration’s economic policies and growth amid voters reporting financial anxiety.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previewed Trump’s speech during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday, which included taking shots at the Biden administration’s economic record.
“We greatly look forward to going to northeast Pennsylvania tonight,” Leavitt said. “And President Trump is going to give a positive, economic focused speech where he talks about all that he and his team has done to provide bigger paychecks and lower prices for the American people.
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She added: “And don’t forget, a year ago, President Trump inherited the worst inflation crisis in modern American history from the Biden administration. And I have watched every single day as President Trump and his tremendous economic team have been working to fix it. And they have, through a very simple economic formula, which President Trump will talk about tonight.”
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