Vice President JD Vance in a Fox News interview on Thursday blamed the Biden administration and undocumented immigrants for ongoing issues with the economy, which has struggled with continued inflation and record-low rates of first-time home buyers.
During the sit-down with Sean Hannity, Vance was not asked any questions about the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein scandal plaguing the White House.
Instead, Vance focused on how the U.S. had “inherited this terrible inflation crisis from the Biden administration” and said it would take more time for the full impact of the Trump administration’s economic agenda to kick in, comparing moves such as cutting taxes and pushing worldwide tariffs to trees that will eventually begin bearing fruit.
“A lot of young people are saying, ‘Housing is way too expensive,’” Vance said. “Why is that? Because we flooded the country with 30 million illegal immigrants who are taking houses that ought, by right, go to American citizens...We're also getting all of those illegal aliens out of our country and you’re already seeing it start to pay some dividends.”
Many experts suggest immigration rates are not a prime driver of housing issues in the U.S., instead pointing to factors such as low housing supply and the financial impact of the Great Recession. Mass deportations could in fact exacerbate housing problems given that undocumented immigrants are estimated to constitute up to half of the construction workforce.
While inflation has continued, prices on some key goods are down. Egg prices have fallen sharply this year, though energy prices through September were higher than when Trump took office.
Vance’s accusatory stance comes as the administration is fighting to defend its economic agenda amid continued inflation and elections earlier this month where economic concerns helped Democrats pick up a series of wins in two governor’s races and the mayoral race in New York City.
President Trump has insisted affordability questions are a Democratic “con job” and prices on “everything” are “way down,” though this is not true.
Average prices were 1.7 percent higher in September than they were when Trump took office in January, and are up three percent year-over-year, according to the latest federal data from the Consumer Price Index.
Foreclosure-related actions have also climbed nearly 20 percent since last fall.
The Trump administration has largely framed any adverse trends in the economy as a hangover from the Biden years, while steadfastly denying its tariffs have impacted shoppers or are functionally taxes paid by consumers in the form of higher prices.
The White House could face further economic turmoil going forward, as its signature tariff package is in front of the Supreme Court after lower courts ruled the emergency levies were illegal.
Elsewhere in the interview, Vance hammered the Democrats over the recent 42-day government shutdown, which Trump ended Wednesday night by signing a mostly Republican-backed spending bill.
Vance accused the party of causing an unnecessary strain on the country only to get the same deal Republicans offered over a month ago: a short-term spending bill that keeps the government open until early next year.
"They caused a lot of stress for our troops,” Vance said. “They made our air traffic controllers not get paid. They caused a lot of flight cancellations. They had a lot of people thinking they weren’t going to get their food benefits. All for literally nothing."
While Vance sounded an optimistic note on the Trump economy, the White House continues to have a political crisis on its hands as it is once again battling widespread interest in the president’s lengthy past association with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The challenge comes on multiple fronts.
With the House back in session, Speaker Mike Johnson finally agreed to swear in Representative Adelita Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat, who was elected nearly two months ago.
Grijalva was the final supporter required to advance a bipartisan vote aiming to force the government to disclose its remaining Epstein files, which the House will take up next week.
Beyond the House effort, Trump is dealing with the fallout from a cache of previously undisclosed Epstein emails released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.
In the messages, Epstein claims Trump “knew about the girls” Epstein was recruiting into his trafficking ring and asked Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell “to stop.”
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and said his friendship with Epstein ended many years ago.
It comes on the heels of the committee in September releasing records of how Trump allegedly sent the financier a birthday message featuring a lewd drawing and an allusion to a “wonderful secret.”
Trump denies writing the letter and has sued over its release but a bipartisan group of legislators as well as portions of the Trump base continue to push for more information.
Elsewhere in the interview, Vance lavished praise on Trump, boasting that the president can “handle 10 different problems at once” and has “supernatural” political skills, with “better instincts about human beings than anybody that I've ever met."
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