GOP Insists No Affordability Crisis    11/17 06:33

   Almost two weeks after Republicans lost badly in elections in Georgia, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, many GOP leaders insist there is no problem 
with the party's policies, its message or President Donald Trump's leadership.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Almost two weeks after Republicans lost badly in elections 
in Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, many GOP leaders insist 
there is no problem with the party's policies, its message or President Donald 
Trump's leadership.

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

   Those are the major takeaways from a series of private conversations, 
briefings and official talking points involving major Republican 
decision-makers across Washington, including inside the White House, after 
their party's losses Nov. 4. Their assessment highlights the extent to which 
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.

   That's even as an increasing number of voters report a different reality in 
their lives.

   But with few exceptions, the Trump lieutenants who lead the GOP's political 
strategy have no desire to challenge his wishes or beliefs.

   "Republicans are entering next year more unified behind President Trump than 
ever before," Republican National Committee spokesperson Kiersten Pels said. 
"The party is fully aligned behind his America First agenda and the results 
he's delivering 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 approval is similar to former Presidents Barack Obama, a Democrat, 
and George W. Bush, a Republican, at the same point in their terms, however. 
Their parties had major losses in midterm elections.

   Trump insists there is no affordability problem

   Since the election, the White House has quietly decided to shift its message 
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 talked more about affordability in the days since Election Day. On 
Friday, he slashed tariffs on beef and other commodities that consumers say 
cost too much. But Trump's primary message is that the economy is better and 
consumer prices lower than as reported by the media. It's much the same message 
that Democratic President Joe Biden and his allies spent years pushing, with 
little success.

   "We have a great economy and the prices are coming down," Trump told 
reporters Sunday night before boarding Air Force One on his way back 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 it down now to a normal level 
and it's going down further."

   In a social media post Friday, Trump said of the GOP: "We are the Party of 
Affordability!"

   He also has claimed the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner this year will be down 
25%, but that number is off. Grocery prices are 2.7% higher than they were in 
2024.

   Economic worries were the dominant concern for voters in this month's 
elections, 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 
significant losses in nonpresidential elections.

   "Republicans need to relay to voters that they understand what they're going 
through and that they're trying to fix it," Heye said. "That can be hard to do 
when the president takes a nonmetaphorical wrecking ball to portions of the 
White House, which distract so much of Washington and the media."

   "Candidates cannot afford to be distracted," Heye added. "As we saw in the 
recent elections, especially in Virginia, if you're not talking about what 
voters are talking about, they will tune you out."

   A view from a key governor's race

   The reality outside Washington suggests that not every Republican candidate 
shares Trump's outlook.

   New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, a House Republican leader who began a campaign 
for governor last week, said there is no question about the top issue for her 
constituents: affordability. She also played down her party's focus on 
conservative cultural priorities, including transgender athletes, which was a 
top Republican focus in the recent Virginia governor's race.

   "Certainly I support women and girls sports and protecting them, but as you 
see in all of our messaging, we're focused on the top issues, which every 
conversation with voters is about the high taxes and spending, the 
unaffordability," Stefanik told The Associated Press.

   Stefanik offered a nuanced perspective on Trump's leadership.

   She was unwilling to criticize any of the president's major policies or 
governing decisions. But Stefanik, who has fought for Trump's agenda as a GOP 
leader in Congress, shifted the focus to New York's Democratic governor when 
asked about the strength of the Republican Party's support for the president.

   "My sense is our party is fully united behind firing Kathy Hochul," Stefanik 
said before highlighting Trump's support from New York voters in recent 
elections.

   While Stefanik said it is important for the governor to have "an effective 
working relationship" with Trump, she declined to say whether she would support 
a hypothetical Trump move to send the National Guard to New York City, as he 
has threatened. "It wouldn't need to happen if there was a Republican 
governor," she said.

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

   Defiant talking points

   The Republican National Committee, which serves as the political arm of 
Trump's White House, issued a series of talking points that shrug off the 
recent election losses as a byproduct of Democratic voter advantage in the 
states where the top races played out.

   The talking points, obtained by The Associated Press, ignore Republican 
losses in Georgia and Pennsylvania. They also overstate Trump's political 
strength, claiming that he is more popular than Obama and Bush were at the same 
time in their tenures.

   The claim has been echoed across conservative media in recent days.

   An AP polling analysis finds that Trump's approval is not higher than 
Obama's or of 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 both Obama and Bush has approval ratings were in the low 
40s at this point in their second terms, according to Gallup polling, which is 
similar to where Trump landed in Gallup's latest approval poll in October.

   For Obama and Bush, their parties had big losses in the midterm elections 
that followed.

   The Republican messaging crafted by Trump's team, however, doubles down on 
supporting the president and his policies.

   The recent elections "were 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 ballot box; 
President Trump and Republicans are going to make that happen."