White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles attends a dinner hosted by U.S. President Trump in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 2, 2026.
President Donald Trump and the GOP may be in celebration mode, but any festivity over the economy may feel forced, reports Bloomberg.
“[F]raming the economy as humming along is a risky gamble,” said Bloomberg writer Josh Wingrove. “While the Internal Revenue Service issued roughly 99 million refunds this year, which, at $3,276, averaged about 12 percent higher than last year, the savings weren’t evenly distributed.”
Meanwhile, economists and analysts say rising energy costs resulting from Trump’s unilateral war on Iran have erased any cushion provided by the tax cuts in Trump and Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill, which passed under a cloud of controversy last year and still afflicts state legislatures today. Even then, critics called the tax cuts unbalanced and disproportionately serving upper income brackets
“Gasoline prices, at about $4.30 a gallon on average, are at their highest ever for September — though Washburne said Sunoco has seen no dip in demand. Diesel costs are at record highs and still climbing. And major food retailers like Conagra Brands Inc. and Campbell’s Co. say they plan to increase prices,” reports Bloomberg
And now Trump and Republicans must put on a happy face and assure voters that the economy is still coming together if only voters will give Republicans another opportunity to dominate the House and Senate and rubberstamp the president’s policies as they have done for his first two years.
“Still, a latent anxiety hung over [the RNC midterm celebration in] Dallas,” reports Wingrove. “The reality — that polls suggest voters are in fact quite anxious about the state of the economy, and preparing to punish Republicans in November’s midterm elections — has become hard for even President Donald Trump to ignore. Ultimately, the way voters feel about an economy that is a mess of contradictions — growing and stable but expensive and inequitable — seems likely to dictate the results of the vote, and, consequently, how much longer Trump can single-handedly reshape the federal government.”
Fuel prices are surging up, reports Bloomberg, even though the end of the summer travel season is done with. And data out Friday showed little progress on inflation last month, which investors and economists say will likely spur the Federal Reserve to hike rates next week—no matter how mightily Trump may publicly object.
“Consumer sentiment slid below estimates in September, with consumers expecting prices will continue to rise. Just 35 percent of Republicans in the University of Michigan survey believe the government is doing a good job with the economy, the lowest reading since Trump returned to the White House last year,” said Wingrove.
This, added Wingrove, might explain why Trump peppered his speeches this week with tacit admissions of “needing to do more to reassure voters: by acknowledging some victories could take time to manifest, and by dangling the prospect of a $5,000 ‘Trump Dividend.’” Vice President JD Vance spoke of outrage over housing costs in his Thursday speech, and begged Republican voters to “stick with the party even if they don’t agree on everything,” said Wingrove.
