Republicans in Washington came away from the recent elections with a clear takeaway: focus on the high cost of living or risk big losses in next year's midterms.

President Trump isn't convinced.

The president said this past week that Republicans aren't talking enough about his administration's successes, and he dismissed questions on voters' concerns regarding the economy. Most prices are on the downswing, he argued.

"Our energy costs are way down. Our groceries are way down. Everything is way down. And the press doesn't report it," Trump said. "So, I don't want to hear about the affordability. Because right now, we're much less."

Trump's optimistic perspective on the economy is at odds with government statistics and the views of many voters, according to pollsters and analysts. The Labor Department reported last month that consumer prices rose 3% in September from a year earlier, marking the fastest pace since January. In recent surveys, voters said the cost of housing, groceries and utility bills is unmanageable. Democratic candidates who focused their messages on affordability came out on top in Tuesday's elections, handily beating their Republican challengers.

In the Oval Office on Friday, Trump lashed out at reporters who pressed him on the cost of living. "We are much better than Biden," he said. "We are the victors on affordability."

The president called Democrats' contention that affordability played a role in Tuesday's election a "con job," and he asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to help him make his case to reporters in the room.

Following the recent election, some of Trump's own advisers said privately that the president would shift focus to domestic affairs after spending a chunk of his first nine months on foreign policy. "We need to focus on the home front," Vice President Vance wrote on social media following the election. "We're going to keep on working to make a decent life affordable in this country, and that's the metric by which we'll ultimately be judged in 2026 and beyond."

Behind the scenes, Trump has been irritated that Democrats are getting credit for their focus on affordability, according to an administration official. The president is attuned to voter concerns and regularly discusses the state of the economy with his team of economic advisers, including near daily conversations with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the official said.

White House officials said Trump is expected to step up his economic messaging in coming weeks. After Tuesday's election, the conservative activist and former Trump administration official Steve Bannon interviewed Bessent, who made the case that the economy will improve as Trump's policies are fully realized. "The house got burned down, and it takes a while to rebuild it," Bessent said on Bannon's podcast.

White House spokesman Kush Desai said that Trump inherited a bad economy and that the administration will "continue to emphasize" policies that are intended to cut costs, increase wages and spur investments in the U.S.

Privately, Republicans said they are worried that Trump seems reluctant to empathize with voters' economic pain. And some in the GOP have been raising red flags for weeks about Republicans' vulnerabilities over the economy.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) said in a recent interview with CNN, "Affordability is a problem."

"I go to the grocery store myself. Grocery prices remain high. Energy prices are high," she said. "My electricity bills are higher here in Washington, D.C., at my apartment, and they're also higher at my house in Rome, Ga. -- higher than they were a year ago."

Trump points to a surging stock market and lucrative investments in the U.S. from foreign countries as evidence that the economy is on solid ground.

Trump was swept back into office vowing to tame inflation and bring down the cost of living. During the 2024 campaign, he regularly criticized President Joe Biden for not doing enough to lower prices, and he promised to reduce grocery prices on his first day in office.

Even though tariffs haven't driven prices up as much as economists initially expected, inflation is nonetheless frustrating consumers as the prices of goods have continued to rise. Everyday grocery items such as ground beef, coffee, bananas and dairy have all increased. Homes are still seen as unaffordable across the country. Retail power prices are up for many consumers.

On Friday, the president asked the Justice Department to launch an investigation into what he alleged was a conspiracy by meatpacking companies to drive up prices, a moved that echoed steps Biden took while in office.

Annual inflation heated up slightly in recent months, though not as much as economists had expected. Consumer prices increased 3% in September from a year earlier, a rise from August's 2.9%. Private consulting groups are reporting a softening job market, with a slowdown in employer hiring.

The federal government shutdown means the U.S. hasn't reported official jobs or unemployment data since the shutdown started Oct. 1. Consumer sentiment extended its decline in November, according to the University of Michigan, which reported what was among the lowest results in decades of surveys.

Trump is correct that in his second term the rate of inflation is lower than the peak of about 9% that Biden faced in mid-2022. But many consumers want to see their prices go down, and take little solace in the slowing rate of price increases. This is leaving Trump in a position that frequently bedeviled his predecessor: convincing voters that the economy is better than they think it is.

Complicating matters, Trump is pushing for an overhaul in the economy to reshore industries that he acknowledges will cause turbulence until the changes he is seeking are fully realized. Surveys of businesses show the tariffs he has implemented as part of this strategy have created high uncertainty that is freezing investment and hiring decisions at some companies.

The Federal Reserve's anecdotal survey of the economy from October found that manufacturing activity varied across the country and that "most reports noted challenging conditions due to higher tariffs and waning overall demand."

Since taking office, Trump has taken more than a half-dozen foreign trips. He has spent relatively little time out in the country talking to voters. Much of his domestic travel has entailed visits to his properties in Florida and New Jersey or to major sporting events such as the Ryder Cup and the Super Bowl. This Sunday he is expected to attend an NFL game.

Trump has focused in part on legacy-building projects such as peace deals abroad and a $300 million ballroom. Democrats are planning to say in ads that Trump is out of touch.

"He does a very good impersonation of Marie Antoinette in drag," said Rahm Emanuel, a former Chicago mayor who is eyeing his own 2028 presidential bid. "He is telling you he doesn't really care."

Emanuel, a former top adviser to President Barack Obama, said Trump is showing all the hallmarks of being isolated. "Every president loves the people who come in and tell them how great he is doing," Emanuel said. "It is an illness of the Oval Office."