Washington, DC – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries held a press conference where he emphasized that House Democrats will continue to push back against far-right extremism, including Donald Trump’s reckless tariffs which will increase costs on the American people.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Good morning everyone. From the very beginning of this Congress, House Democrats have continued to make clear that we are fighting hard to build an affordable economy that drives down the high cost of living for everyday Americans because the cost of living in America is too high. Housing costs are too high, grocery costs are too high, childcare costs are too high, utility costs are too high and insurance costs are too high. America is too expensive. Donald Trump and House Republicans aren’t doing anything about the affordability crisis in the United States of America.

We were told that grocery costs were going to go down on day one of the Trump presidency. Costs aren’t going down in America, they’re going up. And the Trump tariffs are going to make things more costly in the United States of America. House Republicans, Senate Republicans and Donald Trump haven’t done a single thing to lower the cost of living in this country. Not a single bill. Not a single executive order. Not a single administrative action has been done by Donald Trump, House Republicans or Senate Republicans to lower the high cost of living in the United States of America. In fact, Republicans are crashing the American economy in real time and driving us to a recession. This is not Liberation Day. It’s Recession Day in the United States of America. That’s what the Trump tariffs are going to do—crash the economy, which has been happening since January 20 of this year. And the American people are taking note of it in community after community after the community.

But it gets worse. Not only have Republicans failed to do anything to drive down the high cost of living in the United States of America, they are trying to take healthcare away from the American people and end Social Security as we know it. Our response to that Republican effort: not on our watch. We’re working hard to save Medicaid and strengthen and protect Social Security from Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the extreme MAGA Republicans who are on the run. They’re on the run on the economy. They’re on the run legislatively. Yesterday, they got out of town before sundown cause they have no agenda to make life better for the American people. And they’re on the run politically, which as Democrats we’ve been saying since January and now apparently other people are starting to catch up.

Full press conference can be watched here. 

###