President Donald Trump insists there is “virtually no inflation,” and that “prices are ‘WAY DOWN’ in the USA,” on social media, but Americans just aren’t feeling it.
The Guardian reports U.S. residents are still complaining of soaring inflation and are increasingly pessimistic about the economy. In fact, three quarters of voters reported price increases of roughly $100, with increases ranging between $100 and nearly $800.
What might be a problem for the president is the fact that people complaining about inflation range across the political spectrum, according to the Guardian, with Republicans and Independents similarly aggrieved at grocery costs and monthly fuel prices.
“Many believe the 2024 presidential election was a referendum on Biden’s economy,” reports the Guardian. “Inflation soared in the years after the pandemic while wages struggled to keep up, leaving many Americans feeling like their paychecks were losing power. While the Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, fought to present a new economic vision focused on costs, for many voters it was too late.”
With just over a year until the midterm elections, the Guardian reports Trump’s economy isn’t looking much brighter. More than half of Americans said they believed the economy was in a recession, which rates five ticks higher than what Harris was facing in the lead up to the November election. A majority of Americans also think the economy is getting worse, compared to slightly less than half of Americans believing that when Harris lost to Trump last year.
The frustration on social media is easy to spot.
“It's stupid's economy,” posted American journalist and associate professor Jeff Jarvis in response to the Guardian report.
“Gaslit economics. Tariffs act like a stealth tax on dinner. Courtier politics of a would-be king while families juggle rent, meds, and thinner paychecks,” posted another commenter on X.
Trump owes his re-election victory to voters souring on Joe Biden’s Covid-era inflation, according to the Guardian.
“Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again,” The Guardian reports Trump claiming at a rally in August 2024.
But economists at the Yale Budget Lab have calculated that households will see an average increase of $2,300 in costs a year due to Trump’s own tariffs — an average of $191 per month.
And while Democrats also do not rate high among American voters, The Guardian reports Democrats’ economic policies, including a federal ban on price gouging for food and grocery prices, expanding the child tax credit, and increasing tax rates on long-term capital gains for millionaires, are popular — “far more popular than policies that Trump ran on and has implemented.”
Read the Guardian report at this link.