Toolkit: The Trump Slump

  • Whether you care about grocery prices, the job market, or how taxes impact our day to day lives, there’s a single thread running through today’s pain: a rigged economic playbook. Tariffs act like hidden taxes that raise prices on everyday goods. Meanwhile, the tax code rewards the well-connected as communities shoulder higher taxes and fees. The result? Prices are sky-high, paychecks don’t stretch, and opportunity gets pushed out of reach. Unless we demand accountability and common-sense fixes—cutting consumer price hikes, unwinding costly tariffs, and ending special tax breaks for the few—the squeeze will keep getting tighter for everyone.

    This toolkit offers timely messaging guidance, key talking points, digital assets, and the latest updates to help highlight our current economic struggles.

    • 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. Corporations raising prices, billionaires rigging the tax code, and Trump’s failed economic playbook are the cause of today’s squeeze, not families or workers. 

    • 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. 

    • Keep language plain, relatable, and rooted in values of dignity and fairness. Use voices people trust.

    • Highlight how difficult the job market has gotten. “About 3 in 4 report seeing no change or fewer job opportunities available today than in the past and most say the jobs they are seeing don’t pay enough to live on.” [Data for Progress 7/25]

    • Remind people that the tax system is broken. Billionaires and corporations do not pay their fair share, and if they did, we would all have more opportunities to thrive.

    • One in five employers say they’ll slow or cut hiring in late 2025. That’s twice as high as last year. That’s not a recovery, it’s a slowdown and it’s why too many families feel stuck. Nearly three out of four job-seekers say they’re seeing no change or fewer opportunities and too many of the jobs that do exist don’t pay enough to live on. But it doesn’t have to be this way. [WSJ 8/21, Data for Progress 7/25]

    • American families are working harder than ever, but corporations keep hiking prices while billionaires cash in on special tax breaks. Only 3 in 10 households say they earn enough to cover basic needs. Nearly half of families say they worry about making ends meet, and many are dipping into savings, running up credit cards or even skipping meals just to cover bills. That’s what a rigged economy looks like in real life. When the wealthy pay their fair share and corporations can’t gouge us at the checkout, your paycheck stretches further. [Data for Progress 7/25, New Century Foundation 7/31]

    • Extreme Giveaway to the Wealthy: Politicians keep handing out tax breaks to the wealthy –over $4 trillion in the House budget– while families that are already struggling with the cost of living are asked to give up food and healthcare.. [CBPP 2/21]

    • Instead of more giveaways to the rich or policies that slow hiring, we need leaders who will stop price gouging, raise wages to ensure jobs pay enough to support a family and build an economy that works for you and your family.

    • You don’t have to accept an economy that only works for the wealthy few. With fair rules and common-sense solutions, we can build one that rewards your hard work, not just their wealth.

  • SOUND THE ALARM:  

    • Share with all your friends and followers! 

    • Tell everyone the Trump administration is hurting our economy.

    • Call out the #TrumpSlump

    PUBLISH OP EDS & LTES

    • Reach out to your local newspaper telling them how you feel Trump’s administration is affecting our economy in an opinion piece, editorial, or letter to the editor.

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