Overview
- The MS NOW report on May 28 said Chief of Staff Susie Wiles told staff to “stick to the affordability script” and to “let Trump be Trump,” creating separate internal and public messaging tracks.
- New polling and government data in late May show the approach has not worked, with multiple surveys reporting record or near-record low approval for President Trump and steep drops in consumer confidence.
- Reporters and anonymous current and former advisers say the president continues to focus on the Iran war, a White House ballroom project and intra-party fights, and the communications director Steven Cheung has publicly rejected the anonymous-sources reporting.
- Cabinet officials have tried to graft affordability language onto policy moves — for example, SBA actions to curb loan-guarantee fraud and EPA steps on refrigeration rules — as staff scramble to sell cost-cutting measures to voters.
- Analysts link the Iran conflict to higher fuel and grocery costs that are forcing Americans to cut items from grocery lists and reduce spending, a dynamic experts say could persist as a ‘permacession’ and worsen midterm prospects for the governing party.