Trump ignoring a 'political reality' — and worrying Republicans in the process: economist

Back in 1992, Democratic strategist James Carville unveiled one of the most famous phrases in U.S. politics: "It's the economy, stupid." The concept, however, existed long before 1992 — Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt's messaging on the Great Depression gave him a landslide victory over incumbent GOP President Herbert Hoover in 1932 — and still existed in 2024, when Donald Trump's emphasis on inflation, according to polls, played a major role in his victory.

Now almost 11 months into his second presidency, Trump is facing weak approval ratings in many polls. And according to economist Rob Shapiro and The New Republic's Greg Sargent, Trump's erratic messaging on the economy is causing fellow Republicans a great deal of anxiety ahead of the 2026 midterms.

During an appearance on The New Republic's podcast "The Daily Blast" posted on December 15, Shapiro and host Sargent emphasized that Trump isn't doing the GOP any favor when he dismisses voters' anxiety over high prices.

"Well, you know, there are two realities here," Shapiro told Sargent. "One is the economic reality that people feel they can't afford the things that they used to be able to afford. And the second is the political reality, which is they blame Trump for it. And they blame Trump for it, I think, because he spent the first six months of his term saying: I'm going to totally redo economic policy, totally redo the economy around the tariffs. And so, he seized responsibility for the economy. And of course, the tariffs only raised prices."

Shapiro continued, "So they make the underlying issues worse. And people believed him. He was the master of the economy. Well, they don't like the results. So he's got a political reality, which is ultimately based on the underlying economic reality."

Sargent, a former Washington Post columnist, noted Trump's exact words on high prices: "The word affordability is a con job. They use the word affordability; it's a Democrat hoax. Look, affordability's a hoax."

Shapiro told Sargent, "The reality is that prices continue to rise, and they are continuing to rise at a rate which is a little faster than they were rising last year. Moreover, most economists expect inflation to accelerate because the impact of the tariffs is only now kicking in. And the reason for that is that businesses knew the tariffs were coming, so they built up their inventories before the tariffs. Well, now they've spent down those inventories. So any new inventories they buy — either from abroad or made with inputs from abroad — are going to cost more, and they've got to pass it on."

Listen to the full podcast at this link or read the transcript here.