Tariffs, The Affordability Economy, The AI Transition, And The Biden Immigration Bubble
And Democrats, who stand to inherit the whirlwind
Zohran Mamdani resumed calling Donald Trump a “fascist” and a “despot”, but said he will work with the president anyway, after their photogenic Oval Office meeting. If Trump really is a fascist, then his new frenemy relationship with Mamdani, an avowed socialist, must be the new Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, in which case Manhattan is about to become Warsaw (I kid. Sort of). The two men are ostensibly united against an ‘affordability crisis’, unheralded until after the recent off-year election cycle, that is primarily about housing costs.
It is important to note that, contrary to what we were all promised by the opposition to Trump’s tariffs, other household costs have not gone up as much as housing. Grocery prices, for example, have only risen about 2.1 percent in 2025, year-on-year, up just 1.4 percent since Trump took office. By contrast, grocery prices increased 5.4 percent annually under the Biden administration for a cumulative 23 percent over four years, a hit that still has consumers smarting today. Fuel prices are declining. Residential electric rates are not much above the general rate of inflation. Housing alone suddenly costs so very much more than it did in 2020, and relief has lagged Trump’s inauguration by ten months.
Between the two men, Trump has the most ability to affect the cost of the most housing through policy. He has already undertaken the most rent-deflationary measures possible. Mamdani on the other hand is the man with a potential political future after 2028, who will benefit most from the sudden decrease in rents now taking place. He will never agree to continue what Trump has done, that has succeeded, however. Mamdani is trapped by his ideological commitment to resist mass deportations of undocumented, unauthorized immigrants. Mamdani’s identitarian politics require him to suspend the law of supply and demand whenever sacred classes of people are involved. He is not allowed to ‘get it’.
