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When Donald Trump ran for president last year, he vowed to lower prices and usher in another economic boom. Instead, Americans are facing a financial hangover. The cost of beef is at record highs, health insurance premiums are surging, and job growth has slowed to levels not seen since the Great Recession. Now that Trump is back in the White House, Republicans are making the same mistake Democrats did during Joe Biden’s presidency, trying to convince voters that the economy is better than it feels. It didn’t work for Democrats, and it’s unlikely to work for Trump. During Biden’s term, Democrats downplayed inflation that stemmed from pandemic-era supply chain shocks and corporate price gouging. The White House was slow to acknowledge the pain, and voters punished them for it. Americans can spot financial spin a mile away, and the numbers show how much they care. According to Gallup, 52 percent of voters said the economy was “extremely important” to their vote in 2024, the highest share since the 2008 crash. That focus helped Republicans then. But the tables have turned, and Trump may now find himself on the wrong side of the same equation. Instead of addressing voters’ concerns, Trump has lashed out. When weak August job numbers landed, the president claimed the figures were “rigged” by federal workers trying to sabotage him and promptly fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He’s taken to Truth Social to insist that “Prices are WAY DOWN in the USA” and “No Inflation!!!” posts that fly in the face of government data. The latest consumer price index shows annual inflation is once again rising, contradicting Trump’s rosy claims. Voters aren’t buying it. A Blueprint poll released this week found large pluralities of Americans now blame Republicans for higher prices on food, health care, electricity, and other essentials. In the latest Economist/YouGov poll, 53 percent of voters say the economy is “getting worse,” matching the same level of pessimism seen during Biden’s tenure. And Gallup now gives Democrats a 47 to 43 percent edge when asked which party will do a better job keeping the country prosperous, their biggest advantage on that question in more than a decade. Part of the blame lies with Trump’s economic choices. His so-called “big, beautiful bill” rewarded the ultra-rich with tax cuts while gutting programs that helped working Americans, including Affordable Care Act subsidies. His erratic tariff policy has rattled markets and given corporations cover to hike prices further. The result is an uncertain economy, where the wealthy thrive and everyone else struggles to pay for groceries and rent. Many economists now call this the “K-shaped” economy, where the rich climb higher while lower-income Americans sink deeper into debt. Households cut off from ACA subsidies report monthly health insurance bills soaring by over $1,000. Auto delinquencies are up, and “buy now, pay later” loans for groceries are becoming alarmingly common. At the same time, Trump’s rollback of clean energy programs has helped drive household utility bills up 10 percent since he took office, even as he ignores the ballooning electricity use of AI data centers. Consumer spending remains strong, at least among higher earners, and the stock market continues to perform. But that was also true before the Great Recession, when luxury spending held up, until it didn’t.
