Angry Voters Don’t Trust Democrats To Fix Economy as Trump Polls Tank

One month before the midterm elections, President Trump’s rhetoric at Saturday’s Ohio rally near where a Navistar truck plant announced 1,400 layoffs has voters scratching their heads. “We’ve done nothing but bring prices way down,” Trump said as polls show Americans increasingly believe the opposite.The debate over whether we’re living in the best “boom” times as Trump economic advisor Kevin Hassett said on CNN Sunday or something far worse as Democrats paint a picture of voters struggling with gas, grocery and electric prices will only grow more ferocious as Election Day approaches.Trump’s approval rating on the economy is not helping his fellow Republicans as voters’ concerns about the cost of living are front-and-center. According to new polling, Democrats are now leading in deep-red areas across the country, including Texas and Kansas.Mr. Trump’s approval rating on the economy began to decline early last year, when his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs were imposed on goods from across the world. His approval rating sank even further after the beginning of the war with Iran, which has led to higher fuel costs and, in turn, spikes in the price of goods across nearly every sector of the economy. The administration is not having it. “Americans are finally actually pocketing more money than the government and inflation is taking away,” Vice President JD Vance said on Fox News, a claim that has been true in some months, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.“There’s so much more work to do,” Vance continued. Republican leaders around the country are pulling out the stops to show they are in tune with Vance. A state legislative special session in battle-ground Iowa passed more than 1.3 billion dollars worth of tax breaks for a steel plant the Trump administration has been courting — a move criticized by Democrats and some conservative Republicans. The plant development, if it moves forward, won’t open until 2030.And Mr. Trump is not stopping there, promising direct payments to Americans in the run-up to the midterms, including $500 refunds for nearly 1 million Americans on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. The president has also pledged to make direct payments to all American adults, so long as his party retains control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. “Only I can make you this promise,” Mr. Trump said in a video from the Oval Office on Saturday. “If the Republicans win, you will each have $5,000 in your pocket.”On Sunday, Democratic Arizona Senator Mark Kelly blasted the checks, “This is just a pay off and (Trump) is just trying to buy votes,” calling the president “the most corrupt occupant of the Oval Office ever.” Despite promising the checks for the better part of a month, Mr. Trump’s economic approval numbers have not moved. According to a new poll of battleground Senate races from the New York Times and Siena College, only 34 percent of voters see the economy as “excellent” or “good.” Mr. Trump’s approval rating on the economy is only 37 percent, while his disapproval rating sits at 61 percent. “Something has to change politically in this country,” Mr. Bos, a three-time Trump voter, told the AP. “Seems like it just kept getting worse and worse and worse.”Still, Democrats generally are not outperforming their Republican counterparts on the question of who would be better stewards of the American economy. According to another poll from NBC News released in September, 39 percent of Americans trust Democrats to manage the economy, while 38 percent say Republicans. In 2022, Republicans led on that question by 19 points — 47 percent to 28 percent. Two of Mr. Trump’s former economic advisors, Larry Kudlow and Stephen Moore, argue that there is a brighter picture to be painted even though Americans are “in a bad mood” due to high energy costs. In an opinion piece for the New York Post, Messrs. Kudlow and Moore argue that higher wages, lower poverty, and a faster-growing stock market should be front-and-center for the White House.“The stock market is at an all-time high, nearly doubling in the decade since Trump was first elected, even as the markets of two of our major economic rivals, China and Japan, have been flat,” they wrote. “But elections are about tomorrow, not yesterday — so celebrating these gains, strong as they are, isn’t enough to convince voters to stay the course.”

Angry Voters Don’t Trust Democrats To Fix Economy as Trump Polls Tank

Angry Voters Don’t Trust Democrats To Fix Economy as Trump Polls Tank

More from the New York Sun

The ‘Missteps’ That Made Sylvester Stallone

Can History Making Phenom Cavan Sullivan, and Cast of Other Teens, Relaunch American Men’s Soccer?

‘Donnie Darko,’ 25 Years on, Still Gets Lost in Its Own Rabbit Hole

Trump Tariff on Tomatoes Could Mean the End of Free Chips and Salsa at Restaurants

Separatist Party Is Favored To Top Polls in Monday’s Quebec Election

‘A Confederacy of Dunces’ Gets the Graphic Novel Treatment

The Incredible Shrinking Federal Workforce

Despite Attempted Mideast Hijacking, the Pursuit of Regional Peace Must Go On

More from the New York Sun

The ‘Missteps’ That Made Sylvester Stallone

Can History Making Phenom Cavan Sullivan, and Cast of Other Teens, Relaunch American Men’s Soccer?

‘Donnie Darko,’ 25 Years on, Still Gets Lost in Its Own Rabbit Hole

Trump Tariff on Tomatoes Could Mean the End of Free Chips and Salsa at Restaurants

Separatist Party Is Favored To Top Polls in Monday’s Quebec Election

‘A Confederacy of Dunces’ Gets the Graphic Novel Treatment

The Incredible Shrinking Federal Workforce

Despite Attempted Mideast Hijacking, the Pursuit of Regional Peace Must Go On