President Trump told a cheering crowd at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georgia, on July 22 that “affordability” was a term invented by his political opponents, recounting the exact moment he says he first heard it: at his very first press conference after taking office, when a reporter pressed him on rising egg prices.
“They used the word — first time I heard it. It was a word, you know, made up by the Democrats. Affordability,” Trump said, describing his response at the time as, “I’ve been here one day. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it”. He blamed his predecessor Joe Biden and the “radical left Democrats” for what he called “the worst inflation in 48 years,” citing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as his source for the figure. In fact, the 2022 inflation surge was the worst in roughly 40 years, with Yale economist Stephen Roach noting that Trump often repeats the claim, one of his “biggest economic lies.”
Trump’s rally in Marietta was a case study in what that reframing costs him. The president’s economic narrative — eggs down, oil coming, stocks up, 401(k)s flush — is accurate in pieces and misleading in sum. The stock market has hit 73 all-time highs since the election while consumer confidence is near historic lows, and both things are true because the market rally is riding on a rickety bet on AI, with tech megacaps’ earnings not translating into lower grocery bills or affordable mortgages. The president spent Wednesday night celebrating one half of that picture and dismissing the other as a word his opponents made up.
