'Doubling down' Trump is 'determined to hand Democrats a gift': conservative pollster

Noting that troublesome polling for presidents has become the new norm, conservative polling analyst Kristen Soltis Anderson wrote on Thursday night that alarms should be going off in Donald Trump’s White House.

And, she added, the president is only making matters worse with three years remaining in office and Democrats making gains.

Writing in the New York Times, the influential pollster suggested that Trump’s war on the concept of “affordability," and his arguments supporting his contention, are sure to be weaponized by his opponents and he needs a course correction to stop the bleeding.

Stating the president’s polling numbers are in “ominous territory,” she wrote, “... affordability has slipped away from Mr. Trump as an issue of strength. Recent polling shows voters assessing his impact on the economy in much the same way they ultimately rated Mr. Biden, with only 15 percent of respondents saying in a Fox News poll last month that they thought Mr. Trump’s economic policies had helped them personally.”

With that in mind, she added, “The holiday shopping season is upon us and, with it, the potential for even greater political peril.”

Pointing to the president’s Tuesday rally in a small Pennsylvania resort town, she claimed the president “doubled-down” on his failing “affordability” message and it could come back to haunt him.

“When Mr. Trump was rolling out his tariffs, he admitted that they might make things more expensive. He should thank his lucky stars that his political opponents haven’t yet blanketed the airwaves with the clip of him saying, ‘Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know? And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally,’” she pointed out before suggesting the president is “seemingly determined to hand Democrats a gift.”

“Voters are craving economic relief, and they fear this White House has only exacerbated the problems it inherited from the Biden administration,” she advised before further warning, “Eggs may be cheaper today than one year ago, but many things people pay for are not, and the job approval numbers for Mr. Trump reflect that pain.”

You can read her entire piece here.