Democrats Have Found Their Message—and Trump Is Freaking Out

President Donald Trump has been mocking Elizabeth Warren—usually in unfunny and racist ways—for years. But he has never seemed as angry at the Massachusetts senator as he was on Monday morning. The cause? Warren laid out the simplest, strongest argument that Democrats can make as they attempt to retake power in next year’s midterm elections.

“Remember, Donald Trump ran for office saying he would lower costs on day one. Costs of groceries are up, cost of housing is up, cost of health care is up,” Warren said on CNBC. “And where is Donald Trump? He’s passing a signature bill to throw people off their health care so he can do tax cuts for billionaires. Democrats are the people who say ‘billionaires actually should pay their fair share,’ and that we need to focus on affordability for American families. And that’s what we’re fighting for.”

Trump was furious. “In just 6 months, I cut costs, especially Energy and Taxes, Tremendously. Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren, on CNBC, said costs have gone up,” he wrote on Truth Social, using his longstanding offensive nickname for the senator. “She is just angry that I blew up her terrible Presidential Campaign. Call her out!!!”

Trump’s wrong. Prices are going up on just about everything. “Government data, including from the Commerce Department this week, show that prices rose in June on items heavily exposed to tariffs, such as home furnishings, toys and appliances,” The New York Times reported over the weekend. That’s Trump’s Commerce Department. He may be trying to cook the books in other areas—notably by firing the federal official tasked with collecting (recently disappointing) jobs data—but he can’t hide the fact that the economy is getting worse.

On Friday, a Morning Consult poll found that nearly two-thirds of surveyed voters blamed Trump for rising prices—and that nearly eight in ten of them, including an astounding 70 percent of Republicans, believe Trump’s tariffs will increase the price of everyday goods. On Monday, an AP-NORC poll found that more than half of respondents were stressed about rising grocery prices—prices that are likely to continue to rise. Everywhere you look, voters are telling pollsters that they’re stressed about skyrocketing costs.

Trump’s trade war has handed the Democratic Party a winning message in a moment in which they badly need one. As the party slowly figures out what it stands for in the Trump 2.0 era, the cost of living crisis is quickly emerging as an issue that will decide the 2026 midterms—which will, coincidentally, occur right as the full force of Trump’s tariffs is being felt across the economy and in everyone’s wallets.

Many national Democrats have spent the last few months fretting about the rise of Zohran Mamdani, the young Democratic socialist who won the Democrats’ mayoral primary in New York City. They are so worried about baseless charges of antisemitism—all related to Mamdani’s decision to make opposition to Israel’s apartheid state and genocide in Gaza a plank of his campaign—that they have failed to see a model for the midterms. The national media’s obsessive focus on Mamdani’s comments about Israel and Palestine has obscured a remarkably disciplined campaign. On the stump, again and again, Mamdani talks about the high cost of living in New York City.

His breakout arguably came with a video about the skyrocketing cost of street food—a phenomenon he dubbed “Halalflation.” The success of his campaign is rooted in large part on message discipline. Mamdani’s portrays New York City, accurately, as a diverse, buzzing city that is too expensive for many of its residents to live with any degree of comfort. His solution is a host of programs aimed at lowering costs: free buses, government-run grocery stores, a $30 minimum wage.

Many Democrats balk at these proposals—or rather, at the (in most cases modest) tax hikes that would pay for them. That’s fine. Not all Democrats have to embrace socialistic concepts like free childcare. But they should embrace the central premise of Mamdani’s campaign: Everything is too expensive now, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Trump’s tariffs are already causing costs to spike. Coffee is skyrocketing thanks in part to tariffs on Brazil that are designed at helping a political ally, Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently facing charges related to an alleged coup. Proctor & Gamble is applying a 2.5 percent price increase to goods in August because of the rising costs associated with tariffs. Price increases are likely inescapable. As the Times reported, “Many businesses chose to absorb the additional tax during the early days of President Trump’s trade war. But evidence is emerging that they are running out of options to keep prices stable in the face of deteriorating profit margins, suggesting that the tariffs could have a more pronounced effect on prices in the months ahead.” And once those prices go up, they’re unlikely to come down.

Warren, meanwhile, is exactly right. Trump was elected because Americans were furious about post-pandemic inflation. He promised to lower prices. Instead, he embarked on a stupid, reckless, and unnecessary tariff regime that is accomplishing the exact opposite. So voters who felt financially squeezed during Joe Biden’s presidency, and were expecting some relief under Trump, are in for a rude awakening. Next year could make the inflation of recent memory look mild. If I were the president who was responsible for this, I’d be freaking out, too.