Cardinal & Pine: Economic warning signs pile up as Trump plans Rocky Mount speech on Friday
Amid his “Affordability hoax tour,” President Donald Trump will head to North Carolina on Friday, a state where nearly 1.7 million people could lose their health insurance over the next two years because of Trump policies.
Trump will give a campaign-style speech in Rocky Mount on Friday night, the White House says, and while they have not released a topic or specific reason for the trip, Trump has been giving similar speeches across the country, both in rallies and at the White House. At least on the teleprompter, the speeches start out with promises to bring down surging prices, but veer into tangents about his political enemies and the mechanics of military aircraft.
“The only time anybody could see those planes was when those bomb chutes open up, because it becomes totally un-stealth,” Trump said in a recent speech.
“You’re going in, you go like this. And as soon as it goes like this, for some reason the plane is totally visible. Not good. And I watched it happening. I watched it go bing bing,” Trump said.
That speech was about Hanukkah.
So in the truest sense of the phrase, there is no telling what Trump will say in Rocky Mount. What is known, however, are the economic realities waiting for him in North Carolina.
According to polls, rising prices, stagnant wages, and the overall threat to the economy are at the top of voters’ minds in the state. A recent poll by Elon University found that 76% of North Carolina respondents gave Trump C, D, or F for his economic policies.
Because of Trump’s widespread tariffs, food prices are surging, as are the prices for clothing, car parts, school supplies and coffee. Utility prices are rising too, as are the costs of medication. And like evil twins, as these costs go up, federal food assistance is being cut as well.
Nothing to see here
The Trump administration has been hammered in recent months as these costs become too hard to deny. But Trump has denied there is an economic problem at all.
Trump told Politico he deserved an “A+++++” for his handling of the economy, and dismissed warnings about hungry children and families losing health insurance as a”hoax” and “con job.”
And when he does stick to the economic message, he often makes misleading or downright false claims about prices.
But people in North Carolina, especially in eastern North Carolina, where Trump will speak, don’t need data to know prices are rising fast. They have their eyes and ears.
The prices for meat, bread, vegetables, juice, and milk have all gone up over the last year, and the Trump tariffs have increased costs for the average NC family by $1,200, according to calculations by Democrats on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee.
1.7 million people could lose their insurance
Perhaps the biggest fiscal cliff awaiting North Carolinians, however, is over health insurance, where the expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits and looming Medicaid cuts could create a healthcare crisis that will raise prices for everyone.
The tax credits are how the Affordable Care Act makes insurance affordable. They are set to expire on Jan. 1, which will double or even quadruple premiums for hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians on the ACA. At least 157,000 more expected to lose their coverage altogether, according to KFF.
The budget bill passed by Congress this summer will also make steep cuts to Medicaid after the 2026 midterm elections, cuts that could endanger the state’s recent Medicaid expansion and kick nearly 700,000 low-income North Carolinians off their insurance.
A prime setting
Trump will give his speech in the new congressional district Republicans drew at his behest to kick Democrat Don Davis out of his seat in the US House. The new map is an attempt to blow up the state’s only competitive district, diminish the role of voters, and guarantee Republicans maintain control of the US House after the 2026 midterm elections before any votes are cast.
But many of the effects of Trump’s policies are hitting Trump voters too.
Across the 23 counties that form the new district, more than 50,000 people could lose Medicaid. And according to 2023 data, nearly all the counties in the new district have poverty rates far higher than the state average.
This is an audience that may be less receptive to claims that affordability is a made up problem, or that their own budgets are lying to them.
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