Attacking Iran while pushing affordability at home has put President Donald Trump in a tough spot, but this is the United States of America! We can shoot guns and churn butter at the same time.
So far, the President is making all the right moves. Releasing oil from the strategic reserve, considering a temporary suspension of the Jones Act, and offering tankers naval escorts and U.S.-backed insurance for their passage through the Strait of Hormuz will all help keep the oil flowing.
If he can wrap the war relatively soon, gas prices could be back to normal before the midterms. They might even be lower if he manages to arm-twist whoever ends up ruling Iran into redirecting their oil exports from China to the West.
In the meantime, Trump is traveling the country to tout all the ways he’s already brought down the cost of living: no tax on tips and overtime, lower drug prices thanks to TrumpRx and most-favored nation pricing, mild inflation, lower mortgage rates, and trillions of dollars’ worth of job-creating investments in the U.S. economy.
These are all huge wins, but this is no time for the Trump administration to rest on its laurels. It needs a forward-looking agenda that tells voters they’re nowhere near done saving them money and the best is yet to come.
These proposals should be easy to shape into compelling campaign messages and should address key sources of cost-of-living anxiety like housing, groceries, and childcare. Bonus points if they involve Congress, since they’re the ones who’ll actually appear on the ballot in November.
If Trump wants to preserve voters’ goodwill in the midst of the ongoing conflict, he should start by working with Congress to fix and then pass the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which aims to bring down home prices by making it easier to build.
Letting this bill fail due to GOP opposition in the House would make the party less credible as champions of affordability. Unfortunately, with the bill in its current form, that opposition is justified.
The bill would ban investors from constructing new “built-to-rent” (BTR) single-family homes, a key option many families should have to living in a home as opposed to an apartment. This would remove a key source of new housing inventory from the market at a time when overall home construction is dropping sharply.
If the bill is supposed to increase housing supply and lower costs, it should do that, not give with one hand and take with the other.
It’s true that BTRs don’t satisfy the dream of home ownership. They could, however, help millions of young couples afford the space they need to start families now instead of putting it off for years while they save towards a down payment.
Second, Trump should find a way to put money in parents’ pockets as soon as possible. Trump accounts will pay off “bigly” in 18 years or so — especially if more billionaires follow Michael and Susan Dell’s example — but families with young children are struggling right now.
There is a proposal floating around among conservative family policy experts that would accomplish this goal. It’s called the Family Income Supplemental Credit (or FISC), and it would essentially increase the Child Tax Credit and distribute it as a series of monthly cash payments: $800 a month for the second half of pregnancy, $400 a month from birth through age six, and $250 a month from ages 6 to 18.
In the 2024 election, parents with minor children at home voted for Trump by a nine-point margin after breaking for Biden four years earlier. If they’d all stayed home, Harris would’ve won the popular vote 50-48 (and possibly the electoral college too). Rewarding this key group of swing voters for producing the next generation of Americans would pay huge dividends for Republicans in the 2026 midterms and beyond.
Finally, Trump could rack up an easy and immediate win without help from Congress by simply ending his predecessor’s war on bulk pricing.
Lina Khan, the radical progressive Biden chose to run the Federal Trade Commission, spent four years trying to punish American companies for the crime of success.
Two of her lawsuits, against Pepsi and alcoholic beverage distributor Southern Glazer’s, used an obsolete Depression-era law to argue that suppliers cannot offer bulk discounts to their largest customers. If either of these lawsuits were to succeed, it would drive up prices at some of Americans’ favorite retailers, including Wal-Mart and Costco.
The FTC dismissed the Pepsi lawsuit last May, but the other is still pending. Trump should put this question to bed once and for all by urging his FTC Commissioner, Andrew Ferguson, who has already slammed the suit as government overreach, to drop the case. There’s no better way to win the working family vote than to get up on stage and declare, “I saved Costco!”
The war with Iran is a complication few political strategists would have wished for this close to the midterms. But if Trump can keep the oil flowing, end the war quickly, and demonstrate his continued commitment to affordability, voters will happily forgive a little temporary pain at the pump, especially when it creates more world peace.
Chaffetz served as a member of the U.S. Congress from 2009 to 2017. He chaired the House Oversight Committee.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/CSPAN)
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
