President Trump speech Tuesday night at a campaign-style rally in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, was supposed to focus on Americans’ affordability concerns and promote the president’s economic agenda, launching a 2026 schedule of events around the country addressing voter anxieties about elevated prices and stagnant wages. It didn’t quite work out that way.
Trump rambled and meandered through more than 90 minutes of remarks reminiscent of his 2024 campaign attacks. While much of his speech was indeed devoted to inflation and economic issues — and while Trump acknowledged that there is more work to be done on both — he also blamed Democrats for inflation, mocked Democrats’ use of the word “affordability,” told parents that their kids didn’t need quite so many pencils or dolls, floated the idea of investigations into Biden-appointed Fed officials, and made a slew of off-prompter, off-color digressions that dominated Wednesday morning headlines, including vicious, racist attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar and immigrants from what he called “shithole countries.”
“You know, I have fun. I have fun,” Trump said. “I haven't read practically anything off the stupid teleprompter.”
(Omar responded in a post on Bluesky: “Trump’s obsession with me is beyond weird,” she wrote. “He needs serious help. Since he has no economic policies to tout, he’s resorting to regurgitating bigoted lies instead. He continues to be a national embarrassment.”)
Trump’s comments suggesting that Americans can go without some things came as part of a defense of his efforts to promote American industry and a criticism of China. “You can give up pencils, because under the China policy, you know every child can get 37 pencils,” he said. “They only need one or two. You know, they don't need that many, but you always need — you always need steel. You don't need 37 for your daughter. Two or three is nice, but you don't need 37 dolls. So we're doing things right. We're running this country right.”
The cheering crowd at the rally obviously agreed, but Republicans facing re-election races and forced to again answer questions about Trump’s comments probably weren’t as pleased. And the news reports coming out of the speech certainly didn’t reflect the kind of focus on economic concerns GOP strategists might have preferred.
“At the first stop on his affordability tour, Trump mocks affordability,” The Washington Post’s headline about the speech read.
The Associated Press piece was titled: “Trump’s speech on combating inflation turns to grievances about immigrants from ‘filthy’ countries.”
The bottom line: Trump undercut the economic message he was supposed to deliver. Susie Wiles, Trump’s White House chief of staff, recently told a conservative YouTube show that she wants the president on the campaign trail for 2026 elections and intends to “put him on the ballot.” But the president’s first speech on what’s supposed to be an affordability tour didn’t deliver much reason for optimism for Republicans worried that Americans will blame them for not addressing kitchen-table issues.