Washington DC - Donald Trump will travel to Pennsylvania next week to talk up his economic agenda, the White House said Thursday, as the president faces growing pressure over an affordability crisis that he dismisses as a "hoax."

The Republican billionaire's speech in the crucial blue-collar state marks the start of what aides say is a bid to ramp up his domestic travels, following criticism from some in his party that he has focused too much on foreign policy.

"The president will be traveling to Pennsylvania to discuss how he and the administration continue to focus on delivering on his day one priority of ending Joe Biden's inflation crisis," a White House official told AFP.

Trump insists that prices are falling and that he is fixing what he describes as a mess left by his Democratic predecessor.

"They use the word 'affordability.' It's a Democrat hoax," Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday as he announced a reset of Biden's fuel-economy standards that he said would lower US car prices.

"Just about everything is down," Trump said. "I think affordability is the greatest con job."

But Trump's approval ratings have slumped to their lowest point since his return to office in January, particularly over the cost of living, which Americans have blamed at least partly on his tariffs.

Democrats made a major issue of affordability in elections that they swept last month for New York City mayor, and for the governors of New Jersey and Virginia.

On Tuesday, Republicans suffered a sharply reduced majority in a congressional district in deeply conservative Tennessee, one of Trump's safest bastions.

Pennsylvania is a key stop on the road to the White House. Trump narrowly won the northeastern state in 2016 and 2024, and lost it by a sliver to Biden in 2020.

Trump is ineligible to run again in 2028 despite hints that he might try.