Most maddening to Republicans, socialists have been among the most skilled at exploiting high prices to achieve electoral success. It was the main thing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani talked about before winning his current office last year, and it is at the center of his government-run grocery store push right now.

President Donald Trump has tried at times to regain control of the inflation narrative, giving a speech touting his administration’s record on the issue in Las Vegas on Wednesday. “We’ve done a great job in bringing down prices,” he said.

But Trump has had trouble staying focused on prices, with a pre-Christmas primetime “pivot” to the economy being upstaged by other headlines. Trump has even expressed irritation at times with the Democrats’ ability to capitalize on the cost of living after Biden-era inflation, calling affordability a “hoax,” “Democratic scam,” and “fake narrative” — all of which seems likely to be turned against him on the campaign trail this fall.

“When I hear the Democrats talk about the affordability crisis they created, it’s a little bit like Charles Manson criticizing violent crime,” Vice President JD Vance said late last year.

Some of Trump’s policies, like the war in Iran and tariffs, run counter to his emphasis on lowering prices. His White House ballroom and Washington, D.C., beautification projects, which might otherwise have been seen as sympathetic concerns, have fallen flat amid voter grumbling about the expensiveness of American life. Energy independence and deregulation are longer-term initiatives.

Trump’s job approval rating has tumbled to a second-term low in the RealClearPolitics polling average. On specific issues, it’s even worse. Trump sits at 36.6% approval on the economy and 30.5% on inflation. On the latter issue, polls included in the average show Trump underwater by as many as 46 points and disapproval ratings as high as 73%.

It is hard to square these numbers with continued Republican congressional majorities, especially in the House, where their margin is already razor-thin.

Inflation became a red-hot political issue for the first time since the early Reagan administration under former President Joe Biden, when it reached its highest rate in more than four decades and remained above the Federal Reserve’s target for the remainder of his term.

Biden was also angered when he received little credit as inflation, which his administration insisted would be transitory, began to subside. The Democrats’ losses in the 2022 midterm elections were relatively modest, but still enough for Biden’s party to lose control of the House. Like many incumbents, Biden and his eventual replacement at the top of the Democratic ticket, former Vice President Kamala Harris, were unable to overcome this dynamic in 2024.

Inflation has generally been lower in Trump’s second term than it was for most of Biden’s single one. June saw the biggest monthly drop in six years during a cessation in fighting in Iran. But inflation was just 1.4% when Trump left office the first time in January 2021. It was low throughout his tenure. Prices were never going to go back down to where they were in Trump’s first term, barring even worse economic problems, which was always going to be a challenge once he returned to office.

The other problem is that inflation is cumulative. Even when inflation rates begin to cool off, prices rise more slowly, but they don’t fall, much less return to 2019, pre-pandemic levels.

This is why Republican elected officials and conservative influencers are arguing on social media about the cost of a burrito at a fast-casual dining establishment.

AFFORDABILITY PAIN IS NOT FADING AND IT’S COSTING THE PARTY IN POWER: BYRON YORK

It was never going to be easy once they were in power.

The affordability crisis they almost universally attribute to Democratic fiscal and monetary policies, and maybe a little bit to young people’s DoorDash habits, is coming for them, with socialists who want to spend even more taxpayer money in line to benefit politically.