Vance Breaks from Trump on Economy

“We understand that and we hear you, and we know there’s still a lot of work to be done,” Vance said during a Breitbart News event. “As much progress as we’ve made, it will take some time for Americans to feel it.”

The conciliatory tone represented a stark departure from the approach adopted in recent weeks by President Donald Trump, who has insisted that the economy is thriving while dismissing cost-of-living concerns as nothing more than a Democratic talking point.

It also underscored the White House’s ongoing efforts to calibrate its message on the economy ahead of next year’s midterm elections – and after GOP losses in New Jersey and Virginia earlier this month, which voters indicated were largely driven by deep disappointment with Trump’s domestic agenda.

During his remarks, Vance acknowledged that Americans remained unhappy over affordability issues. At one point, he went so far as to downplay one of Trump's key barometers of economic success—the drop in the price of eggs since January—by admitting that the food staple remains too expensive for many.

"If you're an American struggling just to make ends meet, you work hard, you pay your taxes, you want your children to have good opportunities. And then under the Biden administration, the price of eggs goes from $2 a dozen to $8 a dozen, and then from $8 a dozen to maybe $6.50 a dozen," Vance said. "Well, that's still a big problem for you." The vice president tried to place much of the blame for voters' sour mood on former President Joe Biden, complaining that the previous administration had "put us in a very difficult position." He also blamed Democrats for any near-term economic consequences of the record-long government shutdown. "It's bound to hurt a little."

The vice president also celebrated the stronger-than-expected September jobs report released Thursday, calling it proof that Trump's policies are working.

Nevertheless, he acknowledged that the Trump administration still has much work to do to convince voters that these policies will benefit them, a departure from the president's preferred method of unconditionally portraying his agenda as a success.

A day earlier, at the US-Saudi Investment Forum, Trump declined to focus on affordability, calling it a "new buzzword" that Democrats have adopted since he took office. "The only thing we're seeing going up is our stock market, well, we're bringing prices down," Trump said, despite the rise in prices of key products like beef and coffee, which economists have at least partially blamed on the administration's tariffs. "But they've come up with a new word they're using: affordability." In speeches and social media posts since the Democrats' election victory earlier this month, the president has called affordability concerns a "hoax" and urged voters to credit him for falling gasoline prices and the inflation rate, which has declined from its Biden-era peak but has slowly begun to climb again in the past several months.

The White House has unveiled several initiatives aimed at lowering the cost of living, while Trump has insisted that prices are falling, including rolling back tariffs on hundreds of products and the possibility of sending $2,000 checks to Americans sometime next year. Trump is also expected to increase domestic travel in the coming months, focusing on promoting his economic agenda, as aides try to raise voter awareness of the administration's accomplishments.