Fox News contributor calls out Trump's claims on affordability: “That messaging that it's not a problem is a problem”
Gerry Baker: “The administration does have to do a better job of at least demonstrating that it understands it's a problem”
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From the November 12, 2025, edition of Fox News' America Reports
SANDRA SMITH (ANCHOR): How would you rate the messaging coming out of the White House on this? When we do look at energy prices, they are down — there is no doubt. Crude oil prices down 23% since inauguration day. Gas prices are now down, they're down about 2% since he took office. But people are still paying more for food and housing, and they don't feel great about it.
GERRY BAKER (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Overall inflation is a little bit higher than it was a year ago. According to the official data in the consumer price index, almost exactly the same, but it's just a little over 3% — where it was a little under 3% a year ago when President Trump was elected. So, of course, it's an average; it includes — some things have definitely gone down, dramatically gone down: gas prices, egg prices, which have gone down for particular reasons quite sharply.
But many other prices have continued to go up. I think that again, inflation, that is annual rate of price increases, is way below now where it was in those terrible days in the middle of the Biden administration, when at one point it reached 9%. But we're still running at 3%, that's a high number for most Americans who, when they see that building on top of prices that are already much, much higher than they were five years ago before the pandemic. We have got a problem with affordability in this country, and it is in health insurance, it is, to some extent in housing, it is in many, many food prices, it is in some of the things that we're having to import. You know one of the reasons house prices are going up is because we pulled a lot of lumber to build houses. We need those houses to get the housing supply up and prices down.
So, I think that messaging that it's not a problem is a problem. Because it is a problem for many Americans, they can see prices, they can see how expensive things are compared to where they were five years ago. They're not necessarily comparing it with 10 months ago when President Trump took office. They're thinking: ‘These prices are still too high. My wages are not going up by as much to enable me to pay for those prices.' And I think the administration does have to do a better job of at least demonstrating that it understands it's a problem.