Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana has told President Trump to stop talking about Iran and start talking about the cost of living, arguing that voters are most concerned about prices when they step into the ballot booth this November.
Speaking on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Kennedy said the midterm elections are “going to be close.” He stressed that Americans will be most concerned about the cost of living when voting in November. “It would help if the president would stay focused on cost of living,” Kennedy said.
The senator’s remarks come as a new ad campaign extolling the president is running, paid for with taxpayer money. Kennedy called that spending wasteful, saying no public official should spend public money on private ads for themselves.
Cost of Living Takes Center Stage
Kennedy’s push for the president to focus on affordability follows recent visits to battleground states where he stumped with GOP candidates. He noted that parents worry about the cost of living.
He also cited Iran as a concern for voters, though he framed it narrowly. “When moms and dads lie down to sleep at night and can’t,” they’re “worried about the cost of living,” he said. “And they’re a little worried about Iran because they don’t understand why, but they know the two are inextricably linked,” he added.
His solution is for the president to step back. Kennedy wants him to address the nation on the Iran war, or defer to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine. “I would like to see him give a nationwide address or let [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio and Gen. [Dan] Caine do it and explain why we went into Iran, why we’re winning, and how we’re going to get out,” Kennedy said.
The Iran Position
Kennedy largely defended the president’s actions in Iran. He dismissed Iran’s latest proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart talks as “not a serious offer.”
“We need to continue doing what we’re doing — the sanctions, the blockade,” Kennedy said. “Now there’s just one problem: the strait is at least partially closed, and it’s affected the price of oil. And oil’s in everything, including gasoline, and it’s painful as hell.”
Kennedy said, “We’ve got to either figure out a way to settle this thing, to get the strait open, or to escalate,” though he noted that he would not support sending in troops.
The Ad Campaign Question
Kennedy’s own questioning of former Secretary Kristi Noem came days before her ouster. He questioned her about spending $220 million on an ad campaign aimed at reducing illegal immigration.
Now he is turning his attention to the president’s own spending. “I don’t think any public official, including President Trump or Kristi Noem or John Kennedy, should spend public money on private ads for themselves,” he said.
He acknowledged the limits of his own influence. “The president doesn’t take orders from me, he barely takes suggestions,” he said. But he added that he is “pretty persistent.”
The Naming Rights Fight
Kennedy also raised a separate complaint about political honorifics. He called for a rule that no politician can have a building named after them while alive, citing the ongoing fight over the Kennedy Center.
“I also think that we ought to have a rule that no politician can have a building named after him while he’s alive,” Kennedy said. “I think that would settle a lot of this controversy.”
Key Numbers From Kennedy’s Remarks
- Midterms are “going to be close”
- Voters are most concerned about cost of living
- Noem questioned about $220 million spent on an ad campaign
- Ad campaign paid for with taxpayer money
| Event | Date | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” interview | Recent | Sen. John Kennedy |
| Noem questioning | Earlier this year | Sen. John Kennedy |
| Iran ad campaign launch | Ongoing | White House |
Kennedy’s argument is that the president should talk about the things voters actually care about. He is asking for a lighter touch on government, even as he runs his own campaigns and questions other officials’ spending.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs Sen. John Kennedy’s focus on lowering the cost of living for voters and is against the taxpayer-funded ad campaign he called wasteful. The senator’s own remarks on affordability show he understands what matters to families at the polls, and the paper agrees with him there. It disagrees with him on the ad campaign, which parks public money where citizens have no say and favors the biggest players.
The campaign spends taxpayer money on private ads for itself, and that is precisely the kind of concentration of power the paper opposes. Kennedy himself acknowledged the limits of his own influence, noting the president barely takes suggestions from him. That is a fair point, but it makes the spending worse, not better.
Voters should watch for more of these taxpayer-funded campaigns ahead of elections, and ask whether their money is being used to tell them what to think rather than to lower the cost of living. The paper will keep watching this one.
See the video the story is built around at CBS News.
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