The Affordability Speech. Fed in the Spotlight. Somalis. Meaning of Climate Study Retraction. New from Netflix: Inspiring Saga of Tran-Identifying Coal Miner ‘Carlita’ Who Strives to Make It Underground
Affordability, a buzzword that packs a wallop.
President Trump made a big speech in Pennsylvania yesterday about “affordability.” The president touted his administration’s achievements, adding that Democrats talking about affordability is “like Bonnie and Clyde talking about public safety.”
“Trump’s job is to stay focused on the economy,” urges Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York:
If you want to see why President Donald Trump is visiting Pennsylvania to talk about affordability, and why he is planning rallies on the topic around the country in the coming weeks, just look at the simple question asked in the new Harvard CAPS Harris poll: “What would you say are the most important issues facing the country today?”
The question was open-ended, and respondents could name more than one issue. The top concern, named by 36% of those surveyed, was price increases, inflation, and affordability. The No. 2 issue, named by 29%, was the economy and jobs. Put them together, and economic issues were by far the most important issue named by the voters in the poll….
Voters elected Trump last year, in part, because former President Joe Biden had made such a mess of the economy. Today, Trump points out, correctly, that he is dealing with the hangover of the inflation of the Biden years. “We’re bringing prices way down,” Trump said on Monday. “You can call it ‘affordability’ or anything you want — but the Democrats caused the affordability problem, and we’re the ones that are fixing it.”
But Trump is stuck dealing with a particularly sticky problem, explained by this simple statement: When inflation is going down, prices are still going up. Under Biden, inflation hit 9.1%, the worst in a generation. But when the rate of inflation goes down, as it has — it’s now 3% — that means prices are still going up, just at a lower rate than during Biden’s time in office.
The Washington Post was merciless (“At the first stop on his affordability tour, Trump mocks affordability“), as was the New York Times:
President Trump’s speech in Pennsylvania was meant to alleviate concerns about affordability. But he kept wandering off script and dwelling on his favorite targets, like immigration.
It was an undisciplined speech—the president meandered into a longish and meaningless anecdote, for example, about how late-night host Greg Gutfeld came to like him! Bad review from USA TODAY, but the same outlet reports that the president’s approval has seen a slight uptick, which is “at least partially attributable to respondents’ improved cost-of-living ratings.” Affordability Headline of the Day: “Nothing Needs Affordability Like the Affordable Care Act” over James Freeman’s “Best of the Web” column.
Meanwhile, the Fed is poised to deliver a rate cut today (and other stuff too) as the president says he has a “good idea” of who he will appoint the next Fed chair. White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett is seen as the frontrunner.
How Worried Should Republicans Be? From Fox Digital: “Democrats End 30-year Losing Streak in Miami as Trump-backed candidate Falls Short.” Democrat Eileen Higgins was elected to serve as the next Mayor of Miami.
Did a misreading of history lead to the massive welfare fraud centered on the immigrant Somali community in Minnesota? That’s what AEI’s Howard Husok suggests at Fox Digital:
The billion-dollar pandemic-era social service billing fraud perpetuated mainly by Somali immigrants in Minneapolis is shocking in its scale. That Minnesota public officials would have turned a blind eye to one of the largest state welfare scandals in American history, for fear of being viewed as racist, should surprise no one.
For years, the state has wrongly convinced itself that its Black residents suffer from a deeply racist past. Progressives made a key error, confusing the situation of new immigrants who happen to be Black Africans with those who are the descendants of American slaves. But they were sure they had to correct the past with dramatic policy changes.
Predictable: The mainstream media leaps to defend the Somali fraudsters. Rep. Ilhan Omar turns to her favorite scapegoat, President Trump. CAIR honcho says real victims of Somali fraud are Somali fraudsters. Oh, poor Somali fraudsters. Opps—they’re rich Somali fraudsters!
The Somalis in Minnesota, for the most part, show what can happen when immigrants do not assimilate. Victor Davis Hanson writes in the New York Post that citizens are fed up with Dem-invited migrants who have disdain for U.S. law and culture. (Yes, it’s a reprint from American Greatness, but it’s well worth repeating.) Wondering if this applies to MSM and Minnesota pols who dismissed massive Somali fraud?
Speaking of Western Civ (well, we were in a way), there is a lot of buzz in conservative circles over Vance ally Rod Dreher’s “Trump’s Tough Love for Europe”:
Contrary to what globalists are saying, the Trump administration does not “hate Europe.” It hates what Europe has become under decades of failed leadership.
Good News: The planet has a few good years left. Yay! In a Wall Street Journal editorial headlined “A Climate Study Retraction for the Ages,” the editors explain:
One scandal of our age is the attempt to sell the public on the narrative of climate catastrophe. It’s been fed by the press and overheated political and scientific claims that sometimes are phony. That’s the story with the journal Nature’s retraction of a highly publicized climate study that made headlines.
The study was a shocker when it was first published in April 2024. Scientists at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research projected that climate change could cause $38 trillion in economic damage a year by 2049. … The study also forecast that rising CO2 emissions would cause a 62% reduction in global GDP by 2100, and that damage over the next quarter of a century would exceed the costs of mitigating global warming by six times.
The study had so many errors that Nature has now retracted it, but what an embarrassment….. If progressives want to know why so many Americans don’t believe claims of the climate apocalypse, it’s because so much of climate science has been shown to be unbelievable.
Some Really Bad News for Moviegoers: “It Will Soon Be Curtains for the Movie Theater.” That’s the headline on Jason Riley’s WSJ column, which argues:
If Netflix acquires Warner Bros., some fear, the future is more streaming and fewer theatrical releases. The movie-going audience will shrink, and theaters will go the way of Blockbuster video stores. Others say that missile has launched, regardless of who acquires Warner Bros.
Some Really Bad News for New Yorkers: “Tent City, Here We Come” in City Journal explains the inevitable result of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s plan to end homeless encampment sweeps:
The client of a homeless shelter is the homeless person. The primary client of a homeless-encampment cleanup is the public. Sweeps can offer a secondary benefit by helping outreach workers persuade rough sleepers to enter shelter (guaranteed as a right in New York City). But their main justification is simpler: normal cities do not allow tent dwellers to colonize sidewalks, parks, and other public spaces.
Tennis great Aryna Sabalenka says male athletes have a “huge advantage” over their female opponents. That’s why a Michigan father has filed a complaint after a school forced his daughter to compete against a trans-identifying male athlete.
Liberals can’t quit the attempt to normalize guys in women’s sports. In that spirit, I leave you with … a new Netflix offering, “Queen of Coal,” about a trans-identifying woman “working the coal mines — but in a town steeped in superstition and patriarchy, Carlita must fight to earn her place underground.”
This is somewhat confusing, but at least “Carlita” is a man, so “she” will be as strong as the other guys who work in the minds. “She” just might annoy them.
Ain’t We Got Fun: “Kamala Harris Isn’t Ready to Be Written Off” is a New York Times headline. The subhead asks:
She was seen for two decades as a future face of the Democratic Party. Is she now suddenly a figure of its past?
My Dream: Kamala and senatorial aspirant Rep. Jasmine Crockett campaigning in Texas. Of course, that might be why State Troopers are already standing guard at the Alamo.
