The Movement: A $20 burrito and a fight over affordability

A personal note to readers from Emily Brooks: I have welcomed my second child! I’ll be out on maternity leave for the next few months, and Helen, our Senate reporter, will take over writing of The Movement in the meantime. Please continue to share your insights, events, scoops and announcements with her. I look forward to returning after the midterms and unpacking how things have shifted on the right! 

The rift on the right about whether there is an affordability crisis in America, who’s to blame and how to respond spilled over online last weekend — with extensive back and forth over a $20 burrito.

It started with Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet agreeing with conservative commentator Matt Walsh that Americans are primarily concerned about prices.

Kolvet, in a social media post, referenced a college student associated with Turning Point USA who had said to him that “a burrito shouldn’t cost $20.” Kolvet’s takeaway: “A lot of this is hangover from Covid and Biden-era inflation, but the lived experience is the same: It just feels like basic things cost too much.” 

Several prominent right-wing voices — including Marc Thiessen, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Ben Shapiro — hit back, arguing a college student shouldn’t be trying to afford the burrito in question, that former President Biden’s economic policies were the problem and that the Americans complaining about burrito prices should just learn to cook at home. 

Vice President Vance also chimed in with a barb of his own. In response to a post from Thiessen that read, “Cry me a river. The burritos in the college cafeteria are included in your meal plan,” Vance wrote: “I’m surprised to hear Mark say this. If you’ve ever met him in person, it’s quite obvious the man has never missed a burrito.”

Like many things, the argument wasn’t really about overpriced Mexican takeout.

Affordability is perhaps the central political issue heading into the midterms, and a politician’s response to the rising cost of everyday goods — and the economic conditions creating those costs — has become a touchstone for messaging in the 2026 campaign cycle and beyond.

There are three factions on the right in this debate, said Richard Stern at Advancing American Freedom. One faction is the “suck it up” camp, made up of right-wingers like Thiessen and Crenshaw. 

“Stop whining, get a job, eat Ramen like the rest of us did in college, on a budget with 4 roommates,” Crenshaw wrote on social media. 

The second faction is made up of those who acknowledge high costs as a problem and their solutions to it involve “big government” policy, Stern said. This is largely the policy coming down from the White House, even as President Trump himself has brushed off affordability as “a word made up by the Democrats.” 

Vance’s involvement in the burrito debate online indicates he’s sympathetic to the cost of living crusade. But Stern said that moves like regulations and tariffs, of which Vance has been a proponent, have driven up prices.

Vance has “advocated for policies that I think in reality make it a lot worse for Americans,” Stern told The Hill. “But he leans into the messaging of saying, you know, ‘I care about affordability. It’s the businesses that cause this problem, and I’m here with big government solutions to help solve that problem.’”

Stern himself belongs to the third faction: economic........

© The Hill