US President Donald Trump (R) poses as he poses for photos with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit to Zhongnanhai Garden in Beijing on May 15, 2026.
Evan Vucci | Afp | Getty Images
President Donald Trump is back in the country and so is the focus of his administration, as the war with Iran and the results of his trip to China remain top news.
Trump and his top officials are flocking across the US this week for events aimed at touting his domestic achievements – a remarkable pivot after major foreign policy issues in Iran, China, Cuba, Venezuela and elsewhere have dominated for months.
Trump on Monday afternoon will unveil his latest effort to lower health care costs, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a campaign event in Kentucky and Vice President JD Vance attends a manufacturing-focused event in Missouri.
The apparent change, days after Trump’s return from Beijing, comes ahead of the fast-approaching 2026 midterm elections, in which Democrats hope to win at least one chamber of Congress and aggressively roll back the president’s policy agenda.
They aim to take advantage of Trump’s declining approval ratings, which have fallen sharply in many recent polls as a majority of Americans express negative views about the Iran war and the state of the economy.
Those pressures helped make accessibility a central theme of the central goals. Trump’s announcement at the White House is called the “Healthcare Accessibility Event.”
Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist and host of Substack’s “Endless Urgency,” said the driving force is that “the American voter is angry about the economy.”
Trump was elected on a promise to fight Biden-era inflation and lower inflation, and “that hasn’t happened,” Nellis told CNBC. “So the American people are very angry.”
“The economy is the marquee campaign issue,” and Trump “just had the lowest economic numbers he’s had in any name,” Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a phone interview.
“Put that on top of the price of gasoline, you’re looking at big red flags,” he said.
A New York Times/Siena College poll published Monday found Trump’s approval rating at 37%, a new second-term low, as nearly two-thirds of voters say they disapprove of his handling of the economy.
The president is expected to announce an increase in the number of discounted drugs offered through the administration’s TrumpRX website, a White House official told CNBC ahead of the event at 4:30 pm ET.
On Wednesday, Trump will travel to Connecticut to deliver the inaugural address at the US Coast Guard Academy.
Meanwhile, Hegseth, who heads ongoing military operations in Iran, will travel to Hebron, Ky., to speak at an event with Ed Gallrein, a Trump-backed U.S. House candidate who is challenging GOP Rep. Thomas Massie.
The unusual image of a sitting defense secretary attending an over-the-top political event — and doing so while prosecuting an active war — has raised eyebrows.
The Pentagon, in a statement to CNBC, said Hegseth will attend the event “on his own.”
According to the Pentagon’s ethics guidelines, civilian officials appointed to the presidency and the Senate are prohibited under the Hatch Act and department policy from participating in certain political activities.
“No taxpayer dollars will be used to facilitate his visit. His participation was carefully vetted and approved by attorneys, including the Department of Defense’s Office of General Counsel, and does not violate the Hatch Act or any other applicable federal law,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
The campaign event, held on the eve of the state’s primary election by America First Works in association with MAGA, comes as Trump continues to lash out at Massie, whose clashes with GOP leadership have made him the president’s arch-enemy.
Trump continued his campaign to fire Massie on Monday morning, calling him “the worst member of Congress in the long and storied history of the Republican Party” in a Truth Social column.
“He is a obstructionist and a fool. Vote him out of office tomorrow, Tuesday. It will be a great day in America!” Trump wrote.
Vance, who has been instrumental in efforts to reach out to his Iranian counterparts, is also scheduled to speak at a manufacturing-focused event at the center in Kansas City, Mo.
The domestic focus follows Trump’s return from his much-anticipated two-day summit in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The meetings were full of spectacle and burdensome, but ended with few concrete deals or other tangible results.
–Megan Cassella contributed to this report.
