'Are you better off?' Conservative assails Trump in thundering takedown

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures, as he leaves after delivering remarks at David S. Mack Center for Training and Intelligence in Garden City, New York, U.S., August 14, 2026.

Conservative pundit S.E. Cupp questions the wisdom of setting President Donald Trump up with unfettered power for the second half of his term, especially considering the mess that his first two years have delivered.

“In October 1980, then-candidate Ronald Reagan asked voters a very important question: ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’ It was during the only televised debate he had against incumbent President Jimmy Carter, whose presidency had been marred by one crisis after another, from record-high inflation and rising unemployment, to soaring gas prices and the Iran hostage crisis,” Cupp said in a Chicago Sun Times column.

Reagan, of course, already knew the answer to his question for most Americans, but putting it to words helped propel him to a landslide victory, said Cupp. It also became a catch-all phrase for a political challenger to question an incumbent.

Trump himself has used Reagan’s argument against Biden and others, so Trump knows the cautionary tale of Carter’s presidency. She adds, however, that Carter ended his term with a 34 percent approval rating. Trump is now polling at an abysmal 32 percent, according to Quinnipiac.

“And likely for many of the same reasons Carter finished where he did, ironically — high inflation, rising gas prices and a foreign policy crisis in Iran,” said Cupp. “… [But] when you move beyond the economic numbers, which are bad enough, the picture of Trump’s America gets worse with every peek behind the MAGA curtain. In fact, it can feel at times like America has become a Third World country.”

The nation is on the verge of losing its official measles elimination status, thanks to the administration’s vaccine misinformation. We’re also facing at least 11 foodborne illness outbreaks, including cyclospora outbreaks, listeria, salmonella and E. coli since Trump “downsized oversight agencies, dropped food facility inspections and stripped back mandatory reporting requirements at the federal Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network.”

Trump’s war in Iran has depleted American munitions up to 80 percent in some categories. There are reports of sailors at sea since November, jumping overboard to escape poor conditions and mental health concerns.

“This is America — the superpower?” demanded Cupp. “Where college grads can’t find work, where housing is unaffordable for 75 percent of the population, where families must choose between paying rent or paying doctors bills? Where you can be shot dead for peacefully protesting? Where your government is shuttering important health agencies while spewing junk science about autism and Tylenol? Where our allies are skeptical of us, and our enemies no longer seem to fear us?”

“And Republicans are asking for two more years of control of it all. Who could possibly want more of this?” Cupp asked. “… ‘Are you better off?’ Are you kidding?”

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