Toolkit: Holding Trump

Accountable on Affordability

  • As costs rise for working families, frustration is growing with the spending priorities of the Trump administration. Instead of focusing on lowering prices and strengthening economic security, the administration continues to prioritize tax breaks for the wealthy, aggressive immigration enforcement, and costly foreign conflicts.

    Americans want relief from rising expenses, not more misplaced spending.

    This toolkit offers timely messaging guidance, key talking points, digital assets, and the latest updates to keep the focus where it belongs: affordability and the needs of everyday families.

    • Start with lived experience. Frame messages around the day-to-day struggles families feel: groceries, gas, rent, debt. Avoid leading with abstract economic terms or statistics without context (dollars not percentages). 


    • Name the villains. Billionaires rigging the tax code, and Trump’s mismanaged spending are the cause of today’s squeeze. 


    • Center fairness. The economy should reward hard work, not wealth hoarding. Stress that everyone should play by the same rules and pay their fair share. 


    • Explain how Trump’s measures are not helping anyone. Contrast inflation and rising costs with unnecessary spending on internal and external conflicts. Appeal to people struggling financially. 


    • Call out for leadership. Show Trump as a big bully who is power hungry looking for places to “dominate” (Venezuela, Iran), while his own people are struggling to pay their bills. 

    • You are not alone. 63% of Americans want the President and Congress to focus on affordability, specifically inflation and the cost of living. [Navigator, 02/12]

    • Trump failed to extend healthcare discounts. As a result, marketplace plans became more expensive, and many families lost financial assistance they were counting on to afford coverage. [Economic Policy Institute, 03/03]

    • While our health insurance sky rockets, ICE gets more funding. The legislation essentially doubled annual Homeland Security funding, spending tax dollars on terrorizing American communities instead of on American healthcare. [PBS News, 01/20]

    • Trump promised to cut electricity costs in half within his first year back in office. But the average U.S. household paid more for electricity in 2025 than the year before. [The Guardian, 02/27]

    • The Government should focus on bringing down prices, not waging another war in the Middle East. While we are struggling with the rising costs of groceries, health care, and electric bills, Washington is putting our country’s safety and security at risk by entering another war without an exit plan. 

    • Gasoline prices have risen and will continue to rise amid the Iran conflict. Average U.S prices reached $3/gallon on Sunday March 1st, and will likely climb further due to the war with Iran. [Bloomberg, 03/02]

  • SOUND THE ALARM:  

    • Share the truth: The Government is funding wars and giving tax breaks to the rich while the rest of us can't afford our basic needs. 

    • Use your voice to call out the lies, highlight the stakes, and demand action to improve affordability in the U.S.

    WRITE & SPEAK OUT:

    • Publish op-eds or letters to the editor telling them how you feel Trump’s administration is affecting our economy and affordability.

    • Share stories from your family, small business, or neighborhood about how rising costs are affecting you.

  • Trump & Affordability Content

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