DETROIT — President Donald Trump declared here Tuesday that “the Trump economic boom has officially begun” just hours after the Labor Department reported that consumer prices continued to tick upward during the first year of his presidency.
In remarks to a mostly staid, jacket-tie-and-lapel-pin audience of Detroit Economic Club members gathered in a casino ballroom, Trump touted his tax cuts, tariffs and trade deals. But he declined to elaborate on the details of newer agenda items aimed at controlling prices and addressing Americans’ concerns about affordability.
“In the coming weeks, I will be laying out even more plans to help bring back affordability,” he said, even as he called the issue a “fake word” generated by Democrats to convince voters that he is at fault for high prices.
In recent days, Trump has directed the home-lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds in a bid to lower rates, and he promised to ban large investment companies from gobbling up single-family homes. He mentioned those agenda items briefly, along with his request for credit card companies to limit interest rates to 10% — roughly one-third the level many of them now charge.
The credit card rate cap and the ban on investors’ buying housing stock would require legislation.
Trump also previewed his speech next week at the World Economic Forum conference in Switzerland, where he will rub elbows with business and political elites.
“At Davos next week, I’m going to provide much more detail about our housing policies,” Trump said, “so that every American who wants to own a home will be able to afford one.”
Despite Trump’s oft-stated belief that the economy has been hotter in the past year than ever before, Americans keep telling pollsters that they are not satisfied and see darker times on the horizon. Political strategists on both sides of the aisle say that economic concerns will be a top issue in the midterm elections, with Republicans trying to maintain their majorities in the House and Senate.
The political pinch may help explain the contrast between Trump’s boasts about the economy and his scramble to find policies that might bring down prices.
Here in Michigan, where a marquee Senate race and several House elections could be close, nearly two-thirds of likely voters said they’ve noticed costs rising in the last year, according to a fresh poll commissioned by the Detroit News and WDIV-TV. Released in conjunction with Trump’s arrival in the state, the survey showed that 48% of respondents said the economy has gotten weaker under Trump and 38% said it has gotten stronger.
At the national level, the Labor Department reported Monday that consumer prices rose 2.7% between December 2024 and December 2025. Trump used the release of the data to launch a new attack on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, saying in a social media post that the numbers mean “that Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell should cut interest rates, MEANINGFULLY!!! If he doesn’t he will just continue to be, ‘TOO LATE!’”
Trump also insisted in his speech on Tuesday, “Growth is exploding, productivity is soaring, investment is booming, incomes are rising. Inflation is defeated.”
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates repeatedly last year, but not by as much or as quickly as Trump would have liked. On Sunday night, Powell publicly accused the Trump administration of trying to intimidate him with an investigation related to the renovation of the agency’s offices, touching off a firestorm of criticism of the administration from Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Trump targeted Powell in his remarks Tuesday, along with a familiar cast of foils and foes, including Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., former President Joe Biden and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
He criticized Powell again for failing to drop interest rates to Trump’s preferred levels and then observed, “That jerk will be gone soon.” Powell’s term as chair is set to expire in May.
Trump also lashed out at Democrats a day after he called Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to discuss their shared interest in lowering credit card rates, one of a spate of progressive policy proposals he has embraced.
“They have horrible policy. Thank God they have horrible policy,” he said of Democrats. “They’re smart. They’re evil. They’re vicious. But they’re bad at policy.”