CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Calls Trump Out After Rally: Did Not ‘Propose Any New Plans’ on Affordability
Tommy Christopher
Wed, December 10, 2025 at 6:51 PM UTC
4 min read
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CNN anchor and senior White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins called out President Donald Trump’s rally performance, noting something that was missing: “any new plans” to address “economic anxiety.”
Trump has been fighting a battle over “affordability” since the Election Day bloodbath, insisting concerns over prices are a “con job,” and repeatedly claiming he’s already solved the issue.
After a raft of new polls showed Trump getting clobbered on the economy, he decided to take to the road to spread his message. His first stop was a rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night that served up lots of familiar elements, right down to the riff on buying too many dolls.
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On Tuesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, the anchor opened her show by covering the rally with a pointed reminder of what was missing from the 100-minute speech:
KAITLAN COLLINS: Tonight, President Trump is on the road, in Pennsylvania, trying to alleviate anxious Americans’ concerns that the economic state of what’s happening here in the United States that they feel is overblown, and that because of his policies, as the President put it tonight, the economy is roaring.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We’re bringing those prices down rapidly. Lower prices, bigger paychecks. You’re getting lower prices, bigger paychecks. We’re getting — inflation, we’re crushing it.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And you’re getting much higher wages. I mean, the only thing that used — it’s really going up big, it’s called the stock market, and your 401(k)s.
(CHEERING) (END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The challenge that is facing the President and his party, despite that rosy outlook that you heard there and the cheering crowd behind him, is that Americans who have been to the grocery store lately, or watched their medical bills pile up, or even tried to buy a new home, know what’s going on in America, when it comes to cost.
The President spoke for more than an hour tonight, way over an hour actually, relishing the moment before his MAGA-faithful, dancing to his now-familiar playlist.
One thing he notably did not do though, this evening, is propose any new plans to address the economic anxiety that so many Americans are feeling. Instead, the President put a lot of the blame on Democrats and his predecessor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They have a new word. You know, they always have a hoax. The new word is affordability.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: So, they look at the camera, and they say, This election is all about affordability.
Democrats talking about affordability is like Bonnie and Clyde preaching about public safety.
And I can’t say affordability hoax, because I agree, the prices were too high, so I can’t go to hoax, because they’ll misconstrue that. But they use the word, affordability, and that’s their only word. They say, Affordability. And everyone says, Oh, that must mean Trump has high prices.
No, our prices are coming down tremendously.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The President’s go-to political message has often been more about assigning blame than usually projecting that he is feeling voters’ pain.
It’s a stance that even some of his own members of his own party have been sounding the alarm about, especially ahead of the 2026 midterms, and that’s because of this. The facts are that prices are higher than they were when the President was sworn in, last January. Inflation is practically in the same place that it was, when he took over. And American households have more debt than ever right now.
The President sees the fact that he’s lost a majority of the Americans, on what had been his signature issue as more of a PR problem than a policy one, we are told by sources here at CNN.
But compare the number that you see here on your screen. A 36 percent approval when it comes to the economy. That’s what the voters are telling pollsters about how they view the job that the President is doing.
Compare that to the grade that he gave himself, when it came to the economy today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DASHA BURNS: I do want to talk about the economy, sir, here at home. And — and I wonder what grade you would give your economy.
TRUMP: A-plus.
BURNS: A-plus?
TRUMP: Yes, A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.
The post CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Calls Trump Out After Rally: Did Not ‘Propose Any New Plans’ on Affordability first appeared on Mediaite.