MIAMI — President Trump said Monday that he’s brought prices down so much that Democrats have stopped using the word “affordability.”
“They also gave us very high prices and then they said the word, ‘affordability.’ That’s first time I ever heard it,” Trump said at the annual House Republican retreat in Miami.
“My first day in office, they said, ‘affordability,’ They’re the ones that caused the problem,” he continued. “But we’re really bringing down prices big.
“Do you notice you don’t hear that word anymore? … They don’t say it anymore because we brought down prices so much.”
Trump said the GOP message ahead of the midterm elections should be “simple.”
“Democrats created the high prices and our policies are totally ending them,” the president declared.
Gas prices have surged following joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dozens of senior officials in Tehran as well as Tehran’s ballistic missile and drone capacities.
The Feb. 28 military action prompted retaliatory attacks from Iran on Israel and neighboring Persian Gulf countries — as well as the shuttering of the Strait of Hormuz.
Nearly 20% of the world’s oil supply passes through the channel, and Trump has vowed to do anything necessary to keep the barrels moving out of Gulf on tankers — including floating US ships escorting the vessels.
Trump also suggested Monday in a news conference with reporters that he would relax sanctions on some countries to drive down prices.
“I will not allow a terrorist regime to hold the world hostage,” he said, touting how America’s military actions have destroyed 51 ships in Iran’s fleet and struck more than 5,000 targets — decimating 90% of their missile launchers and 83% of their drone launchers.
But the pinch on the supply chain caused the price oil to rise above $100 per barrel for the first time since inflation notched a 40-year high in mid-2022, before dipping a bit by Monday afternoon.
Trump made the remarks while joining more than 100 House GOP lawmakers at their annual issues conference, held at his golf resort in Doral this year.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and other Republican leaders have debated passing a second bill through this Congress by a simple majority using a process known as budget reconciliation — after handing Trump a win by voting through his marquee tax-and-spending bill, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The president encouraged the House GOP conference to go further and pass the Save America Act, threatening to ignore all other legislation from Congress until the voter ID measure passes.
