Trump’s top advisers wage campaign to shift his focus to high prices

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. WASHINGTON—Just before President Trump left the White House for Thanksgiving, top aides met with him in his private dining room to discuss inflation and the economy in hopes he would calibrate his message on affordability. In another meeting last month, this time in the Oval Office, aides presented Trump with surveys from one of the president’s own pollsters detailing voters’ concerns about the cost of living.

His team has begun showing him social-media posts that illustrate how Americans view the economy. Top aides have taken turns talking to their boss about his economic messaging—and the need to emphasize what voters are feeling. Almost every senior White House official is involved in the effort.

It is part of an across-the-White House bid to change Trump’s messaging on the economy, as many advisers worry that voters’ concerns about high prices are dragging down his presidency and hurting Republicans, according to people familiar with the matter. In conversations in recent weeks, Trump’s advisers have encouraged the president to talk more about what the administration is doing to increase wages, lower the cost of housing and reduce inflation, the people said. So far, Trump has largely avoided any “I feel your pain" messaging, telling aides that the economy is strong.

And he has dismissed Washington’s focus on affordability as a trap set by Democrats intent on papering over the administration’s economic achievements. In many of the private conversations, the people said, Trump has argued that Biden was responsible for inflation, not him. “There is this fake narrative Democrats talk about.

Affordability. They just say the word. It doesn’t mean anything to anybody," Trump said during a