U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he arrives to deliver remarks on the U.S. economy and affordability at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, U.S. December 9, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Some of Donald Trump's "top advisers" are reportedly pushing for him to focus on a key issue driving voter dissatisfaction, but according to a Washington Post report, the president appears to have largely brushed this off for now.
The Post's report, published Monday morning, found that top advisers within Trump's White House are aware that voter sentiment, even within his typically strong MAGA base, is turning against him. This is owed to his perceived mishandling of a number of issues, first and foremost among them being the cost-of-living crisis.
"In recent weeks, pockets of the president’s base — well-known for its unwavering dedication to Trump and his MAGA agenda — have accused the president of focusing too much on foreign affairs, failing to address the cost of living issues he pledged to fix, aligning himself too closely with billionaires and tech moguls, and resisting the release of more investigative files on the deceased sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein," the Post explained.
In an effort to try and get Trump focused on issues that will help him win back voters, Vice President JD Vance recently invited Mark Mitchell, head of the conservative polling firm Rasmussen, to visit the White House and speak with the president and get him to commit to sharing a message of "pragmatic economic populism" with voters. The pollster reportedly spoke with Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles before his lunch with the president. Explaining the "long-ranging conversation" to the Post, Mitchell's view of the impact on Trump was not optimistic.
“To the extent to which we were talking about the economic populism message, he wasn’t as interested as I would have hoped,” Mitchell said.
While Trump appeared engaged with the conversation initially, Mitchell explained, he eventually turned the topic of conversation towards golf and "gushed about two of his golf partners, Sen. Lindsey Graham and Fox News host Bret Baier."
Mitchell further noted that he told the president that he appeared too preoccupied with GOP infighting over fighting for voters and their problems, as he promised on the 2024 campaign trail.
“You said, ‘Fight, fight, fight.’ But nobody ever clarified what that means,” Mitchell continued. “And right now, you’re fight-fight-fighting Marjorie Taylor Greene, and not actually fight-fight-fighting for Americans.”
Top officials in the Trump administration are reportedly planning to get the president out campaigning for Republican candidates in "near-weekly rallies" heading into the 2026 midterm races. The Post noted that the first attempt at such a rally, held in Pennsylvania last week and intended to get Trump focused on an affordability message, went off the rails when the president repeated his claims that the economy was thriving and that "affordability" was a "hoax" perpetuated against him by Democrats.