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Trump is starting to focus on high prices, but slow growth in take-home pay could pose a big risk to Republicans before next year's midterms.
President Donald Trump talks to workers as he tours U.S. Steel Corporation's Mon Valley Works-Irvin plant May 30, 2025, in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. | Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
The drubbing that Republicans took at the ballot box last week highlighted President Donald Trump’s weakness on the issue of affordability. But if voters are frustrated over high prices, the GOP’s challenges are unlikely to be resolved until consumers see a pickup in their paychecks.
Inflation-adjusted wage growth has been falling, government and private-sector data show, with inflation climbing faster than after-tax pay for lower- and middle-income households since the start of the year, the Bank of America Institute says. The rate of real income growth has slowed to levels last seen in the early 2010s, when the economy was still recovering from the financial crisis and the unemployment rate was roughly double what it is today.
