White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt does not suffer fools, and she certainly isn’t about to let Democrats rewrite history on the inflation disaster they created. Appearing on Fox & Friends, Leavitt dismantled the Left’s attempt to distance itself from the Biden-era affordability crisis. She laid out exactly how Biden’s reckless spending and anti-energy policies fueled the pain working Americans are still feeling — and highlighted what President Trump is doing now to ease that burden and restore economic sanity.
“They are pretending to champion the issue of affordability when they themselves created the worst inflation crisis in a generation,” Leavitt said. “You can’t create a problem and then turn around and say, I’m the best person to fix it.”
“So as President Trump has been screaming from the rooftops, Republicans need to remain tough and smart, and they need to be more vocal about touting the accomplishments of this administration.”
She’s absolutely right. This is the Democrats’ playbook in a nutshell — and it has been for decades. They create the crisis, mismanage it into catastrophe, and then insist they are the only ones who can “fix” it.
Leavitt continued, “No, that’s why President Trump was reelected to fix it. And that’s exactly what he’s doing. So as President Trump has been screaming from the rooftops, Republicans need to remain tough and smart, and they need to be more vocal about touting the accomplishments of this administration.”
“Again, inflation has slowed because of President Trump’s economic policies. We see wages for the first time in five years are increasing by about $1,000 per the average American worker,” Leavitt said. “These tax rebates, that’s real money back into the pockets of the American people. For workers who work overtime, for those who collect tips…every single Democrat on Capitol Hill voted against these historic tax cuts.”
“You can’t say you’re for the working man and woman when you vote to raise their taxes,” Leavitt added. “Republicans and President Trump have a proven economic formula and agenda that’s working. It’s focused on bigger paychecks and lower prices, and that’s what President Trump will talk about tonight.”
And let’s be clear: Democrats don’t want to fix the affordability issue because it will take government completely out of the equation and leave them powerless.
The economy is going to be a defining issue in the 2026 midterms, and Republicans would be wise to seize that ground early. Voters feel the difference between the Biden years and the Trump recovery — and that contrast is political gold if the GOP leans into it.
What’s especially telling is what Democrats aren’t talking about. They’re barely touching the economy. Instead, their entire message machine is fixated on illegal immigration and breathless claims about “illegal orders.” That’s not an accident — it’s an admission.
House Speaker Mike Johnson revealed on Tuesday that Democrats are demanding billions in wasteful and ideological spending, including $3.9 million for LGBTQI+ democracy grants in the Western Balkans, as part of their conditions to reopen the government.
Speaking on the 14th day of what he called the Democrat government shutdown, Johnson said the American people are suffering because Democrats have chosen politics over responsibility.
“Welcome to day 14 of the Democrat government shutdown,” Johnson said during his press briefing. “It’s two weeks of Democrats in Congress inflicting untold pain on the American people for nothing other than pure politics.”
Johnson explained that House Republicans had already offered a clean continuing resolution to keep the government funded, but Democrats repeatedly rejected it.
Instead, he said, Democrats are tying unrelated left-wing priorities to essential government operations in an attempt to strong-arm Republicans into approving radical spending measures.
He accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of catering to what he described as the party’s “Marxist base.”
The Speaker laid out details from the Democrats’ counterproposal, calling it a $1.5 trillion wish list of reckless spending that would send taxpayer money to liberal causes and foreign projects that have nothing to do with running the U.S. government.
Among the examples he cited were $24.6 million for climate resilience programs in Honduras.
Another $13.4 million would go to civic engagement programs in Zimbabwe.
An additional $2.9 million is earmarked for desert locust risk reduction in the Horn of Africa.
The Democrats’ plan also calls for $2 million to fund “organizing for feminist democratic principles” in Africa, according to Johnson.
Johnson highlighted the $3.9 million in LGBTQI+ democracy grants for the Western Balkans as an example of Democrats’ misplaced priorities.
“They want to spend 3.9 million of your hard-earned dollars for LGBTQI+ democracy grants in the Western Balkans,” Johnson said. “We are not doing that.”
He argued that Democrats are also trying to undo common-sense reforms enacted by Republicans that prevent illegal immigrants from accessing taxpayer-funded healthcare.
“This is a fact,” he said. “They would add illegal aliens and non-citizens back to taxpayer-funded benefits. It would cost taxpayers nearly $200 billion.”
Johnson further warned that Democrats want to roll back modest work requirements placed on able-bodied young men without dependents.
At the same time, Democrats are pushing to make COVID-era Obamacare subsidies permanent, with no income limits or meaningful reforms.
Johnson said this approach would not only punish working Americans but also reward dependency and mismanagement.
The Speaker accused Democrats of prioritizing ideological projects over the immediate needs of the American people.
He said their proposal exposes how out of touch the party has become, highlighting spending for causes abroad while Americans face uncertainty at home.
“This is not about keeping the lights on,” Johnson said. “This is about Democrats trying to use the shutdown as leverage to fund their far-left agenda.”
Johnson reminded reporters that Republicans have already passed legislation to reopen the government responsibly, without any of the unrelated political riders Democrats insist on including.
The Republican plan, he said, would maintain government operations, protect taxpayers, and prevent wasteful spending abroad.
Johnson also pointed out that the Democrats’ proposal would restore funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, sending a half-billion dollars to what he described as liberal media outlets that have long benefited from taxpayer subsidies.
He described it as another example of Democrats using government funding to reward their political allies rather than serving the public good.
“These are not the priorities of the American people,” Johnson said firmly. “They are the priorities of a radical political class that has forgotten who they work for.”
The Speaker ended his remarks by calling on Democrats to stop the political games and join Republicans in reopening the government immediately.
“We have a clean bill ready to go,” he said. “It keeps the government open, pays our troops, secures the border, and protects hardworking taxpayers. Democrats need to stop holding America hostage.”
Johnson’s comments reflect growing frustration among House Republicans who say Democrats are using the shutdown to push through spending on social experiments, foreign projects, and activist groups under the guise of government funding.
He warned that such spending will only deepen America’s fiscal crisis and fuel public anger toward Washington’s political class.
“This is a moment for leadership,” Johnson concluded. “It’s time to put the American people first and end this shutdown—not by giving in to woke demands, but by standing firm for fiscal sanity and common sense.”