MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The latest inflation report had bad news for President Trump and his party. Inflation grew to 3.7% in September. That's slightly higher than the forecast. And that's the last read on the consumer price index we will get before the midterm elections next month. But President Trump doesn't seem to be focused on those numbers. NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram is focusing on what this could all mean, and she's here with us now. Hi, Deepa.
DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: Hi. Good morning.
MARTIN: So what is President Trump saying about inflation?
SHIVARAM: Yeah. So when he was asked about the inflation report yesterday by reporters, Trump said, quote, "we're doing great," which is a message that is not in line with what voters feel. The inflation report did reflect that reality of what voters are feeling. It showed high costs of things like oil used to heat homes and the cost of air travel. And polling shows that voters are blaming Trump for the economy and those high prices.
MARTIN: So the president has been traveling around the country campaigning for Republicans. Is he telling voters the same thing he's telling reporters, that the economy is great?
SHIVARAM: Yeah, that's pretty much what his message has been. Trump keeps talking up what he says are his administration's successes, like going to war with Iran, which I'll note is unpopular and drove up costs. He also keeps talking about tariffs, which were also unpopular and drove up costs. And more recently, he's been pushing this newer message of saying the economy would be worse under Democrats.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If the Dumbocrats (ph) win, you will have a 1929-style economic depression. You will go into a depression.
SHIVARAM: And Trump pairs comments like that, Michell, with his pledge that he's been saying repeatedly in rallies just in the last several weeks to pay Americans $5,000 if Republicans keep control of Congress. That would be very costly and likely require approval from Congress, but Trump argues that he can do something like that because he says he's bringing money into the country, and he says Democrats wouldn't be able to.
MARTIN: You know, the economy used to be Trump's strongest messaging point. It is one of the reasons that he was elected again in 2024, at least, that's what voters told us. What happened?
SHIVARAM: Yeah, I mean, it was. This was something that Trump could talk about and voters really responded to. I talked to Brendan Steinhauser - he's a GOP strategist - about this, and this is what he told me.
BRENDAN STEINHAUSER: Inflation has a big impact on regular folks who are just trying to put food on the table, pay the bills and that sort of thing. And so they have kind of a short memory. If you're not producing policies that get costs down and make people's lives better in the near term, they're going to hold the president and his party in power accountable.
SHIVARAM: And he says he thinks Trump and Republicans will pay a political price this year - he says similar to how Democrats got treated in the last election.
MARTIN: So we've been talking about the president's travels. We just heard him in Arizona. He was in New York, Alaska and Montana. A trip to Kansas is coming up soon. Any sense of whether his presence on the campaign trail is actually helping Republicans?
SHIVARAM: Yeah. To your point, he's been doing a lot of rallies to try and drum up enthusiasm and voter turnout in red states. Trump said yesterday he's aiming for more than 30 rallies before the midterms, and he says the rallies so far have, quote, "changed everything." He thinks they're really supporting Republicans who previously might have thought that they were in trouble in their races.
But, you know, on the messaging front, Steinhauser - the strategist I spoke to - says that Trump's rhetoric isn't really helping Republicans. He says Trump needs to acknowledge the economic pain people are feeling more directly, and he says he's going to work, you know, to bring down prices, and that would help resonate with voters. But as you heard, Trump's not exactly doing that. He's also telling voters to pretend that he's on the ballot this year, which in the past, has been helpful for Republicans. But this year with Trump's low poll numbers, it's still sort of a wait and see to see how helpful his presence really is on the campaign trail.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Deepa Shivaram. Deepa, thank you.
SHIVARAM: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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