President Donald Trump got a big, flashing warning sign when he arranged to receive a DoorDash McDonald's order from an elderly woman this month, analyst Molly Jong-Fast argued on an MS NOW panel on Monday — and it shows his handling of the economy has gotten so bad it's stripping away his ability to control the political narrative like he once could.
"A lot of these [congressional] races are purple races," said anchor Katy Tur. "And if you're sending Donald Trump out to purple districts like a Mike Lawler district, for instance, with his approval numbers this bad, broadly speaking, I know MAGA voters are, you know, in the tank for him, by and large. But when you're looking at these overall approvals and the independent, the swing voter issue, if you're sending him to a purple district, is that a good idea, Molly?"
"You know, look, part of the problem with Donald Trump is you can't control what he says or does, which is what [White House Chief of Staff] Susie Wiles has found herself in as a problem," said Jong-Fast.
"Look, I look back to the DoorDash grannie of last week, right?" she continued. "So she — this was a stunt. She came in, she was to highlight no tax on tips. And you saw Donald Trump tried to get her engaged on this culture war issue. Remember, she said he said, well, what do you think about women's sports? Right? Because that issue he had been able to use to divide the, you know, voters in a way. And it had worked for him in '24. And she said, well, I'm just sort of trying to basically sort of said, you know, I don't have an opinion on that, which I think is a really bad sign for Trump at this moment, because these issues have worked."
The important thing, Jong-Fast said, is that "they're sort of dog whistles to his people. And these things are not moving the same thing. They're not moving voters in the same way."
"And I think part of that is because gas is so expensive," she added. "And part of that is you have a president who is literally running, who ran on making things cheaper and then got into office and did a number of things that made things more expensive. Tariffs, the war in Iran, and these things. I just don't think there's a historical precedent for running as a candidate who is focused on making things cheaper, and then immediately doing everything to make things more expensive."