Vice President J.D. Vance said Tuesday that President Donald Trump, who has for weeks now claimed that the concept of affordability is a “hoax,” is the best person to solve that so-called hoax.
“I promise you there is no person more impatient to solve the affordability crisis than Donald J. Trump, the president of the United States,” Vance told a crowd of supporters in Pennsylvania.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has for months been mocking Trump’s erratic online posting style, responded to Vance’s speech by highlighting a news article of Trump just this month calling affordability a made-up issue.
Newsom has used Trump’s own words as fuel to mock Vance. Governor Newsom Press Office/X
The Daily Beast reached out to the White House and Newsom for comment.
Trump has for weeks been claiming that affordability is a “hoax” perpetuated by Democratic officials.
“Affordability is a hoax that was started by Democrats,” Trump, 79, said at a cabinet meeting earlier this month.
“The word affordability is a Democrat scam,” Trump said at the same meeting. “They say it and then they go into the next subject, and everyone thinks, ‘oh, they had lower prices.’ No, they had the worst inflation in the history of our country.”
At a MAGA rally in Pennsylvania this month, while surrounded by signage touting economic data in his second term, Trump repeatedly scorned at even the word “affordable.”
“They said, ‘Oh, he doesn’t realize prices are higher.’ Prices are coming down very substantially,” Trump said. “But they have a new word. You know, they always have a hoax. The new word is affordability. So they look at the camera and they say, ‘This election is all about affordability.’”
“I can’t say affordability is a hoax because I agree the prices were too high. So I can’t go to call it a hoax because they’ll misconstrue that,” he said. “But they use the word affordability. And that’s the only word they say. Affordability. And that’s their only word. They say, ‘Affordability.’ And everyone says, ‘Oh, that must mean Trump has high prices.’ No. Our prices are coming down tremendously from the highest prices in the history of our country.”
During that 90-minute rambling speech, he claimed Americans could cut back on costs if they didn’t have so many pencils.
Trump’s intent to paint the cost-of-living crisis as nonexistent comes as his grip on voters is falling over the economy. An AP-NORC poll released last week found just 31% of voters approve of Trump’s handling of the economy.
While Trump has attempted to paint the issue as a “hoax,” his advisors have tried to push the president to focus on affordability ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Trump frequently calls unsavory news items surrounding him a “hoax.” Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The president has for years used the term to describe news items he doesn’t like in an effort to discredit or write them off. Trump used the term “hoax” nearly 800 times during his first campaign and term in the White House, according to the Washington Post.
Affordability now joins the long list of items labeled by Trump to be a “hoax,” including the results of the 2020 election, the Epstein files, global warming—which he once referred to as the “7th biggest hoax”—and his own impeachment in his first term in office.
