Jan. 15, 2026, 6:08 p.m.
President Trump is chatting with Sen. Elizabeth Warren over lowering the cost of housing. He’s endorsing Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin's bill targeting bank-card swipe fees. He’s touting a measure to limit credit-card rates to 10 percent. And he’s channeling his inner Bernie Sanders, signing an executive order that attempts to cap executive compensation for defense contractors.
Now that “affordability” has become the buzzword of the midterms, the former real-estate magnate who rode his capitalist credentials—tethered to a populist message—back to the Oval Office is suddenly a kindred spirit with Democrats—at least when it comes to embracing the pocketbook themes they’re marketing to win back Congress this fall.
“One of our top priorities … is promoting greater affordability,” Trump told the Detroit Economic Club earlier this week.
Democrats aren’t particularly sold on Trump’s latest entreaties, especially given his move to cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans through the One Big Beautiful Bill, his efforts to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and his refusal to support the extension of Obamacare premium subsidies that expired for millions at the end of last year.
“I think they’re in a panic,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said of the administration. “They know they’re completely on the wrong side of the most important issue to American voters, which is the cost of living, and so they’re going to do some masquerade to try to cover up the hole they’ve dug for themselves with undoing the Affordable Care Act, with all the climate-denial nonsense. … Everything he’s done has been to help [Trump’s] billionaire and fossil fuel donors.”
Many Democrats once said they’d be willing to work with the president to address issues on which they agreed. But that appears a bridge too far these days, after his efforts to deport migrants, wage culture wars, and upend government institutions have inflamed the progressive base seemingly beyond redemption.
“He lies all the time,” said Sen. Brian Schatz, adding that Trump is pivoting towards an affordability agenda solely because “I think he's been shown polling that demonstrates people are pissed off about the price of everything.”
Sanders, the Senate’s most influential progressive, isn’t impressed that Trump now wants to talk about curbing corporate greed.
“Trump promised to cap credit card interest rates at 10% and stop Wall Street from getting away with murder,” the Vermont independent recently wrote on X. “Instead, he deregulated big banks charging up to 30% interest on credit cards. The result? Last year, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon made $770 million. Unacceptable.”
So which Democrat isn’t completely shutting the door on Trump?
It’s Warren, whose public spats with the president have been visceral. He’s labeled her a “nut job” and a “nasty woman,” and ridiculed her claims of Native American heritage by deriding her as “Pocahantas.” On the very day he called her, she was delivering a speech dismissing him as a “wannabe dictator” whose policies are “a betrayal of working people.”
Warren noted that Trump had been quick to call members to complain about their efforts on Venezuela and the Epstein files. “But is he on the phone to say, 'Move that housing bill so that we can start right now, today, on expanding more housing in America?' Nope."
And then he called her to talk about housing prices and credit-card rates.
Moved (a bit) by his call and willingness to talk, Warren said she’s at least willing to listen.
“Talk is cheap,” she said in between votes on Capitol Hill. "Let's see if he’s willing to work to get it done.”
Does her gut suggest he’s sincere about matching his populist rhetoric with real action? “I’ll know that when we get it done.”
