Low-income MAGA voters 'duped' by Trump are about to face their worst economy yet: analysis
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Donald Trump supporters gather outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 6, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Inflation is on the rise thanks to President Donald Trump, and his own voters are about to get hit with the worst of it.
The New Statesman reported Thursday that MAGA world will be the ones that face the misery of a faltering economy.
Trump's war with the Federal Reserve kicked in to high gear over the weekend after Chairman Jerome Powell revealed he'd been subpoenaed by a grand jury for an investigation. The probe threatens "a criminal indictment," Powell said in a video statement.
The Fed's "rate-setting board alone employs several hundred researchers, almost all of whom have a PhD in economics," business reporter Will Dunn explained. "Their job is to come up with one of the world’s most important numbers: the Fed funds rate, which is effectively the price of money in the world’s most powerful economy, and which affects the prices of commodities and financial instruments around the world."
However, Trump wants to replace the "multi-billion-dollar system of data collection and careful economic modeling" with his own individual economic whims.
Powell has threatened, "we’re going to probably bring a lawsuit against him."
The chairman's term ends in May, but he will remain on the board of governors until Jan. 2028. Trump has already attempted to fire a previously appointed Democratic nominee. Her position is now being decided by the Supreme Court, said Dunn.
While lower rates could help promote business activity and boost stock markets, the problem is that economic populism can be expensive, the report says.
"The price for juicing the US economy enough to give Trump continued control of Congress at the end of the year will be paid, in the years that follow, by his own voters. Having stimulated demand in the US economy – by making debt cheaper and handing out free money – the US can expect to experience inflation," the piece promises.
The problem for Trump is that his team sees inflation in the "abstract." All of their money is in property, cash and other assets and there is so much of it that their spending barely impacts their lives. That's not the case for Trump voters, the report explained.
"The people who feel inflation most seriously are the people who have the least disposable income – in the US, the bottom quartile of earners. The majority of low-income households in the US voted for Trump in 2024," wrote the Statesman.
The report closed by promising that Trump "is preparing not only to dupe these low-income voters with the illusion of a functioning economy, but to make them pay for it.