Where Trump's affordability ideas stand ahead of his State of the Union

By Victor Reklaitis

With Trump's State of the Union set to focus on the economy, here's what he's done on affordability so far

Ahead of the State of the Union address, it's worth looking at what President Trump has promised to do to bring down prices - and whether he's delivering or not.

Americans' frustrations over the elevated cost of living helped sweep President Donald Trump back into office. But more than a year into his second term, he's facing criticism that his administration isn't doing enough on the issue of affordability.

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, Trump will have the opportunity to tout his record on affordability and tease new plans to bring prices down. The speech is coming just days after the Supreme Court dealt a major setback to Trump's tariff agenda, which the president has pitched as a way to boost the U.S. economy, while critics say it's costing American consumers and businesses.

Ahead of the big speech, it's worth looking at what Trump has promised to do to bring down prices - and whether he's delivering or not.

The table below gives top proposals on affordability from the Trump administration, along with where they stand.

As shown in the table, Trump and his fellow Republicans have delivered in particular on the issue of cutting taxes and preventing tax hikes. That happened through the enactment in July of their giant tax and spending package, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Related: Tax refunds are up this year to an average of $2,290, early IRS numbers show

And read: Here are the winners and losers in Trump's big bill

Trump suggested earlier this month that a second big beautiful bill won't happen, meaning there may not be a vehicle for other proposals like his $2,000 "tariff dividend" checks. When asked about the potential for another bill in a Fox Business Network interview that aired Feb. 10, the president said: "We've gotten everything passed that we need for four years."

Tobin Marcus, head of policy and politics at Wolfe Research, said in a note that he continues to believe that there won't be another major budget bill this year, which "largely rules out additional stimulus, healthcare reform, fiscal support for housing and incremental defense funding." He also predicts Trump "will be unable to deliver on many of his affordability-oriented regulatory threats, especially on consumer credit."

Meanwhile, Democrats are criticizing Trump over the high cost of living, especially following his rollout of a wide range of tariffs. Their own party lost the White House in the 2024 election in large part due to voters' frustrations with inflation.

"Nationally, we've got to pull back these tariffs - 90% being paid by Americans and American businesses," said Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, a Democrat, at an event in Washington, D.C., last week. "One of the reasons that prices are going up is a president who claims he'd make things more affordable is making everything - everything - cost more."

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that Trump exceeded his authority in using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to justify most of his tariffs, but the president said he will now impose a 10% global tariff under a different law. He later raised that amount to 15%. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said the Trump administration plans to invoke other authorities to replace the IEEPA tariffs.

In addition, Trump and his fellow Republicans have drawn flak over the expiration of pandemic-era subsidies for Affordable Care Act health-insurance plans. A former ally - Marjorie Taylor Greene, previously a GOP congresswoman for Georgia - is among the critics.

"Approximately 75,000 households in my former district had their health insurance double or more on January 1st of this year because the ACA tax credits expired and Republicans have absolutely failed to fix our health insurance system that was destroyed by Obamacare," Greene said in a social-media post last week.

Trump, for his part, isn't acknowledging any failures on the cost of living. At an event in Georgia last Thursday, the president said he had "won affordability." At the White House a day earlier, he offered a similar take, saying: "Watch the State of the Union. We're going to be talking about the economy. We inherited a mess, and now we have prices way down." The White House's press office didn't provide a response to MarketWatch's request for comment.

The State of the Union address is slated to start at around 9 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday.

Read more: Has inflation really slowed? Not according to this new Fed study.

-Victor Reklaitis

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02-23-26 1547ET