Election shows 'voters don’t believe' Republicans anymore: analysis

The crew of MSNBC’s “the Weekend” say claims of a booming U.S. economy from President Donald Trump and Republicans were a hard sell to the American people last Tuesday.

Show host Jonathan Capehart played footage of Trump dismissing voters’ cost of living concerns in the wake of Republican election defeats, claiming food and items are “far less expensive under Trump.” Capehart also played a reel of House Speaker Mike Johnson polishing the image of stagnating U.S. wages and explosive inflation.

“Food prices always go up, but they’re going up at a much slower pace,” Johnson told reporters. … Grocery prices are rising at their slowest pace in years. You should look into that.”

“That’s ridiculous that it’s less inflationary than it otherwise would be,” said panelist and author Molly Jong-Fast, who reminded Capehart that Trump promised to make things cheaper during his campaign before kicking off an inflationary trade war with U.S. trading partners. “Mike Johnson was put in this job to serve at the pleasure of Donald J. Trump. He’s a mini-Trump. … Trump is basically the Speaker of the House, so Johnson’s job is to just defend anything Trump does.”

But Trump is stalwart in his insistence that his policies are driving down consumer costs, posting on Truth Social that “Thanksgiving dinner under Trump is 25 percent lower than 2024 Thanksgiving dinner under Biden, according to Walmart. My cost[s] are lower than the Democrats on everything, especially oil and gas! So the Democrats ‘affordability’ issue is DEAD! STOP LYING!!!”

But the president’s claim wasn’t the whole truth, “not even sort of,” according to the New Republic and other analysts.

“Walmart’s 2025 Holiday Meal contains only 15 items, while the company’s 2024 Holiday Meal included 29 items,” reports New Republic. “… Additionally, many of the name-brand items have been replaced by Walmart’s Great Value items.”

Even a quick trip to Walmart’s website reveals the price of Walmart’s Holiday Meal has decreased due to the removal of items and that the actual grocery prices have remained largely the same.

Capehart pointed out that President Biden “got beat up” for playing down the economic hardship of Americans in 2024 and eventually cost Democrats the election.

“And now here’s the current president saying things are even better — but you can turn on the television and see with your own eyes and hear with your own ears that things aren’t better,” Capehart said.

Democratic strategist Kirsten Allen said voters clearly weren’t buying Trump’s message according to recent elections sweeping Democrats into most seats they campaigned for.

“What you saw on Tuesday is that voters don’t believe him. Things have swung the other way on issues where [Democrats] earlier weren’t able to compete,” said Allen, who cited Democrats claiming two statewide elections pertaining directly to Georgia power bills.

However, Molly Jong-Fast warned Democratic leaders were “still gonna have a problem” regardless of how well the recent elections turned out if they failed to deliver on promises.