Donald Trump in recent weeks has hosted a lavish Great Gatsby themed party at his Mar-a-Lago resort — complete with dancers spinning in giant cocktail glasses — touted his newly gilded toilet on social media and sped up entry for billionaires into the US.
Now the man who rode to the White House last year on a promise to fix America’s cost-of-living crisis is struggling to convince voters that he even thinks it is a real issue after dismissing it as a Democratic “hoax”.
It is a messaging problem for the populist Republican, whose approval ratings have ebbed as prices for basic needs such as groceries and rent have continued to rise since his return to office.