All posts tagged "economy"

'All sizzle no steak': Analysis warns Trump Accounts will merely 'disappoint'

President Donald Trump's plan to debut Trump Accounts is a test that could likely disappoint, The Atlantic reported on Thursday.

Michael and Susan Dell announced last week that they would give $6.25 billion to millions of American children, adding $250 for each government-run savings account. The idea sets up potential retirement accounts for kids, which sounds great in theory, but could prove not as generous as it's been touted.

"President Donald Trump and his supporters are billing Trump Accounts as a vehicle to set the next generation 'on a course for prosperity' and transform the lives of low-income and working-class people. In reality, the program is an interesting yet modest experiment in giving American children a stake in the stock market. Trump Accounts, in other words, are perfectly Trumpian down to the name, in that they deliver a lot of sizzle but not much steak," The Atlantic reported.

Contributions to these accounts are not actually tax-deductible. And although the money can't be touched by children until they turn 18, once they do, that money can be taxed.

"Trump hails these accounts as a way to 'help millions of Americans harness the strength of our economy to lift up the next generation,'" The Atlantic reported. "In reality, the impact of these accounts on the lives of most American kids will likely be trivial. There’s nothing wrong with the idea of Trump Accounts, which is presumably why Dell has admirably decided to contribute billions to expand them. But the way they’re being sold will end up leaving people disappointed."

People might need something different, despite the Dells and administration's decisions.

"The principle that the government should give low- and middle-income people a way of benefiting from the enormous returns on capital that American businesses make is a good one," according to The Atlantic. "But a more serious initiative would have involved rolling government contributions for low-income children, and would have made contributions to the accounts of low- and middle-income kids tax-deductible. That might have helped kids who need a nest egg actually build one. But the president does not, in fact, seem all that interested in narrowing the wealth gap. For Trump, a product just needs to look the part for him to give it his name."

'Absolute fugazi!' Expert says Trump can't escape blame as Americans 'can't catch a break'

President Donald Trump can no longer escape blame over the declining economy, a data analyst said Thursday.

CNN's Harry Enten told anchor Brianna Keilar that criticizing former President Joe Biden for the high cost of living hasn't worked for Trump and pointed to recent polls that show growing dissatisfaction with the Trump administration.

"Americans at this point just don't feel like they can catch a break," Enten said. "Money consistently taken out of their pocket. It feels like the cost of living is going higher. And if those ACA subsidies are not, in fact, extended, that, of course, just adds to the cost burden. And this whole idea that Donald Trump and the Republicans can escape blame when costs climb ever higher is absolute fugazi! It's fantasy," Enten said.

"Why do I say that? Because just take a look here. More responsible for the current economy. The last administration, Joe Biden or the current one? Donald Trump, 62% say the buck stops in the White House with the Republican president, Donald Trump," Enten said.

With the Affordable Care Act subsidies slated to run out and no plan in sight to help people have affordable healthcare, Americans see Republicans in power and aren't fooled, which could be a boon for Democrats heading into the 2026 midterm elections, he added.

"Just a third say Joe Biden. So look, the ACA subsidies, the ACA as a whole, health care. This right now is an anchor on Republicans. And it's something I think Democrats will be able to use in 2026, especially as we head towards those midterm elections," Enten said.

'Dumpster fire': New poll stuns as Trump sees worst-ever results

President Donald Trump's approval rating has plummeted to its lowest point yet, according to new polling results released Thursday.

Results from a new AP-NORC poll showed that Americans have grown further dissatisfied with Trump's handling of the economy and immigration, a clear sign that these could make his party vulnerable ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, The Associated Press reported. Only 31% of U.S. adults said they approve of how Trump is handling the economy, which is down 40% from March and "marks the lowest economic approval he’s registered in an AP-NORC poll in his first or second term."

And while Republicans haven't completely abandoned their support of the president, it does show his influence has slipped.

"The new poll found that 36% of Americans approve of the way he’s handling his job as president, which is down slightly from 42% in March," AP reported. "That signals that even if some people aren’t happy with elements of his approach, they might not be ready to say he’s doing a bad job as president. And while discontent is increasing among Republicans on certain issues, they’re largely still behind him."

Social media users responded to the news:

"Dumpster fire…" former Republican strategist Mike Murphy wrote on X.

"Lowest rated approval to date, and he's so mentally gone, he won't even notice," user Bekah Freitas wrote on X.

"He'll be in the 20's soon," writer Greg Cantwell posted on X.

"A new AP-NORC poll has Trump's approval rating on the economy hitting a new low of 31%. His approval on immigration also hit a new low of 38%. This has been one of his worst polls for a while. But those are still remarkable numbers," CNN reporter Aaron Blake wrote on X.

"And yet. . . Voters are FLEEING to Rs, who have net gained in. EVERY SINGLE STATE we can measure. Yeah, sounds unpopular to me," historian and author Larry Schweikart wrote on X.

"I still can’t believe those members are that high. They should be way lower than that," user Shauna Gisin wrote on X.

Trump hands huge 'gift to Democrats' on issue seen 'throughout the country': ex-lawmaker

Donald Trump has handed yet another "gift to Democrats" as he talks up the affordability crisis, according to an ex-lawmaker.

The president is currently on a rallying tour to boast of his second term's successes, but a Democratic analyst and former lawmaker believes issues that can be seen "throughout the country" are the real talking points. Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina lawmaker, says the Dems need to take full advantage of this in the lead-up to the midterms as it will make all the difference next year.

Speaking to The New York Times, Sellers said, "It is a gift to Democrats, and I think this is the one time that the Democrats have been disciplined enough to home in on one message. And between this and health care, you have winning issues. And you’re seeing that throughout the country."

Despite the ongoing economic crisis across the country, Trump suggested there was no such crisis at play. He told the rural Pennsylvania audience, "Our prices are coming down tremendously." He had previously referred to the affordability crisis as a "hoax".

Fellow political experts believe the timing is right for Democrats to make a "once-in-a-generation" shift in power. Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee president Heather Williams has outlined exactly what candidates need to do between now and November 2026 for a post-election environment that could see the Democrats sweep the House and Congress.

Williams said, "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fundamentally transform legislative power. We are looking at the makings of an environment that looks more like 2010 in reverse." It takes just 19 seats on the map for new majorities and trifectas, according to Williams.

She said, "Democrats in the states lost a lot of ground in 2010 and in the couple of elections after that, and in that rebuild process, the map changed a lot. What we are saying in this update to the target map—and frankly, our broader strategy—is that we must show up in these red states."

"When you think about the long term trajectory of Democrats and our success as a party, we need to recognize these moments of power, and these states where Republicans have been competing, and we need to show up for voters."

'It's so cringe': Critics say Trump has made US a 'banana republic' with one economic move

Donald Trump's recent economic decisions have turned the US into a "banana republic" according to notable critics of the administration.

The introduction of the Trump Gold Card, an investor visa which would grant a residency permit to any individual who donates $1million to the government, has been roundly criticized by members of the public. A donation to the Department of Commerce of $1million is required for individuals while a $2million donation is required for a corporation or a donation made on behalf of another person.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had claimed in June that there was a waiting list of over 70,000 people. The White House has since made the Trump Gold Card official, announcing the scheme Wednesday. A post to X from the White House account reads, "THE TRUMP GOLD CARD. Unlock life in America."

The X account Republicans Against Trump wrote, "The United States under Trump is officially a banana republic. Great job, everyone." USA Polling also weighed in on the card, adding, "It's all so cringe."

Political commentator Ron Filipkowski also aired his concerns on the Trump Gold Card. He wrote, "Everything in the US is for sale to the wealthy all over the planet, whether friend or foe. Citizenship, work visas, security guarantees, key industries, advanced military capabilities, AI and sensitive tech. For the right price, anyone can have whatever they want from us."

A description of the Trump Gold Card on the official application website reads, "For a $15,000 DHS processing fee and, after background approval, a contribution of $1million, receive U.S. residency in record time with the Trump Gold Card."

A "tax exemption" card named Trump Platinum Card is also available on the official website for Gold Card applications. The Platinum Card is listed as "coming soon".

The Trump Platinum Card description reads, "Foreign nationals can sign up now and secure their places on the waiting list for the Trump Platinum Card. When launched, and upon receipt of a $15,000 DHS processing fee and $5 million contribution, they will have the ability to spend up to 270 days in the United States without being subject to U.S. taxes on non-U.S. income."

Application times have been cited as taking just "weeks" according to the trumpcard.gov website. It reads, "Once an applicant’s processing fee and application are received, the process should take weeks. The applicant will need to attend a visa interview and submit any additional documents in a timely manner."

GOP is ‘desperate' for Trump to 'wake up' — and realize 'he's got a problem': expert

A political analyst said Wednesday that President Donald Trump has undermined Republicans' message on the economy.

Brendan Buck, MS NOW political analyst, said that Republicans are increasingly worried about maintaining hold of political power, especially in swing states.

"I mean, the economy is not the only issue in politics, but it is the most important issue in every election," Buck said. "And Republicans understand that. And I think they're probably pretty desperate for the president to wake up and realize that, that he's got a problem."

Republicans have signaled that if they can't address affordability and economic woes, then they could lose control of the House majority.

"Look, most of these guys, you know, don't need to worry about a general election. But if you are not focused on the number one issue that people care about, you're going to be in trouble. That's what Marjorie Taylor Greene, of all people, has recognized and has been waving this flag," Buck said. "We are going to be in the minority in the House unless we have an answer to this issue. And if the president is not even aware that this is a problem, if he's telling you the economy is a plus plus, plus, you're just talking way past people."

Trump's message that the economy is booming has struck a nerve among voters who see otherwise — and Republican lawmakers fighting to maintain hold of their seats — but they can't count on Trump to course correct that, Buck explained.

"This is the problem, when he goes in these rallies, people are cheering for him. He gets feedback that this is all good stuff. This is great. We don't need to change anything," Buck said. "Meanwhile, your battleground members are desperate for a solution. Anything that they can hang their hat on, and they're just not going to come from the White House."

One key issue shows inequality is out of control under Trump — it's time to fix it

As you know by now, I don’t like raising big problems without offering big potential solutions.

The big problem I want to talk about today is that CEO pay has become utterly untethered from reality.

When I was a young man in the 1960s and ’70s, CEOs typically made 20 to 30 times the pay of their workers. That was enough to reward leadership, but not so much as to distort the entire economy and alienate workers who could still aspire to the American Dream.

Today, the gap between CEO pay and the pay of average workers has exploded. The average CEO at a major corporation now takes home nearly 300 times what their employees earn.

In some cases, the disparity is so grotesque it defies belief. For example:

Walmart’s CEO raked in $27.4 million last year — 930 times the median Walmart worker’s $29,469 salary.
Coca-Cola’s CEO made $28 million — nearly 2,000 times what the average Coke worker earned ($14,144).
Starbucks’ CEO pocketed $95.8 million in 2024 — almost 3,000 times the typical barista salary of $32,000. (By the way, I urge you to boycott Starbucks until they agree to a first contract with their striking baristas.)
Tesla just approved a nearly $1 trillion pay package for Elon Musk — the world’s richest man (except for on Sept. 10, 2025, when Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s net worth briefly surpassed his). This pay package would make Musk the first trillionaire in history.

The problem isn’t just these ridiculous sums. It’s also what’s happening to ordinary workers.

Undervaluing their labor while overvaluing the labor of CEOs has fueled resentment, anger, disillusionment, and fear — creating conditions ripe for a demagogue to exploit. This is what helped give rise to Trump.

The yawning gap between the wealth of executives and the everyday people who generate that wealth is beyond obscene. The American people agree: A staggering 62 percent support setting caps on CEO pay relative to worker pay.

CEOs aren’t worth nearly what they’re raking in. They get these pay packages because they’ve rigged their boards to award them.

They’ve also linked their pay to their corporations’ stock prices — and they cash in when their corporations buy back their stock to pump up share prices.

It’s immoral. Even Pope Leo has noted these concerns: “CEOs that 60 years ago might have been making four to six times more than what workers receive, the last figure I saw, it’s 600 times more.”

Referring to Musk, the Pope continued: “What does that mean and what’s that about? If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we’re in big trouble.”

So, what do we do about this? How can outrageous CEO pay be stopped?

The best idea I’ve heard comes from Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who have introduced the “Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act.”

Under it, companies would pay higher taxes when the ratio of the pay of their CEO to their typical worker exceeds 50-to-1.

If it exceeds 50-to-1, the corporation pays an additional 0.5 percent tax
If it exceeds 100-to-1, the corporation pays an additional 1 percent tax
If more than 200-to-1, a 2 percent tax
If more than 300-to-1, a 3 percent tax
If more than 400-to-1, a 4 percent tax
If more than 500-to-1, a 5 percent tax

So, if Tesla’s board approves Musk’s staggering $975 billion pay package, Tesla would owe up to $100 billion more in taxes over the next decade.

It won’t be easy to get this idea implemented, given all the corporate and CEO money now polluting our politics. But if my guess is correct, we’re about to witness a giant backlash against Big Money in politics. If so, this idea has a chance, especially after the midterm elections.

Don’t wait. Please call your members of Congress today and tell them to support the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act. (To reach Congress via the Capitol Switchboard, dial (202) 224-3121, and ask the operator to connect you to your specific Representative’s or Senator’s office, by name or office.)

Thanks for demanding an economy that works for working people — and not just the wealthy few at the top.

'Disastrous': Nobel Prize-winning economist says Trump overcorrection is tanking his term

Donald Trump needed to make "cosmetic changes" to the economy rather than grand and sweeping new policies, a Nobel Prize winner has claimed.

Paul Krugman suggested that only a few minor changes were needed to level out the economy left to Trump by Joe Biden's administration. Instead, Krugman suggested Trump had tried and failed to "gaslight" the American people with a slate of large changes and tariff policies which have seen the president's approval rating slump.

Krugman explained in his Substack, "Trump would be in much better political shape right now if he had basically continued Biden’s policies, with only a few cosmetic changes. When he took office inflation was on a declining trajectory. Consumer sentiment was relatively favorable at the start of 2025."

"Americans were still angry about high prices, but the inflation surge of 2021-3 had happened on Biden’s watch and was receding into the past. My guess is that many voters would have accepted Trump’s claims that high prices were Democrats’ fault and given him the benefit of the doubt about the economy’s future if he had simply done nothing drastic and left policies mostly as they were."

Instead, Krugman says the president tried to "gaslight the public" with recent speeches rejecting the idea there was an affordability crisis across the country. The Nobel Prize winner says that in order for Trump to criticise economic policies from the Democrats, he would have to admit the economy now is suffering, something the president has refused to do.

Krugman wrote, "A number of news analyses suggested that he would use the occasion to blame Democrats for the economy’s troubles. That was never going to happen."

"Trump did, of course, take many swipes at Joe Biden, as well as attacking immigrants, women and windmills. But to blame Democrats for the economy’s problems he would have to admit that the Trump economy has problems. And the speech was important because it revealed that he won’t make any such admission, and will continue to gaslight the public."

The so-called "affordability tour" was deemed to have gotten off to a "disastrous start" by Krugman, who added, "And it won’t get better, because while Trump insists that the problem is you, it’s actually him. And he isn’t going to change."

Watch live: Trump talks economy at first rally in months

President Donald Trump was slated to talk Tuesday evening about the U.S. economy during a public rally in eastern Pennsylvania.

Trump's campaign-style address at Mount Airy Casino Resort in Monroe County, a key swing area, at 6 p.m. ET was expected to focus on the economy and growing concerns among Americans over affordability. Trump has claimed that the economy has not been sluggish amid his plummeting approval rating.

The messaging has come into question as the Republican Party sees significant signs in recent elections that their constituents are struggling financially, and this discontent could hurt the GOP's strategy for the upcoming midterm elections in 2026.

The move marks one of the president's first returns to domestic speaking in months.

'He’s devastating the economy!' Battleground state voters reject Trump

Residents and business owners in Mount Pocano, Pennsylvania, tell reporters that President Donald Trump’s boasts of an “A+++ economy” are going to fall hard in the face of reality as his economic tour of Pennsylvania kicks off this week.

“You pretty much just walk into a business, and you ask folks out loud, ‘What do you think of the economy?’ And they'll tell you. And it's not reflective of the economy that Donald Trump is speaking about,” said MS NOW Senior White House reporter Vaughn Hillyard.

Hillyard reported he visited a local establishment and spoke with three women who were independent of each other.

“One woman said that he's devastating the economy here in this community of 3,000, saying her mother is 74 years old and is effectively unable to find a new job, but doesn't have enough finances in order to live in retirement. She needs a hip replacement, but her health care isn't good enough to cover it, so she's not getting that hip replaced, said Hillyard. “The other woman said that she's also a local business owner. … She's forgoing getting health insurance next year because December 15th is the deadline to have insurance by January 1st. And she buys off the exchange. She said the premiums that are being offered are double what she currently pays.”

Still another woman interviewed works the local ambulance services, and she said that the number of folks that are going through the billing department that either now don't have insurance or don't have the funding and the financing to cover the ambulance services that they have used is jumping significantly.

“With all three of those women, I didn't bring up health care myself. They did when talking about the economy,” Hillyard added.

Local bistro and bakery co-owner Pam Watkins confirmed Hillyard’s report, telling MS NOW that healthcare takes up such a sizable amount of the money, the little revenue she does make from her business will now virtually evaporate.

“Our margins just keep shrinking and shrinking and shrinking,” Watkins told Hillyard.

“You've been open six years? How is this year compared?” Hillyard asked.

“This is our, this is our worst year on record. [Health premiums] … were a little more than twice what they were last year,” Watkis answered, referring to Trump and Republicans’ removal of healthcare subsidies.

“Pam has a staff of ten. She says that because of the high price of raw materials for her bistro bakery and the downturn in the number of locals that are coming in and the downturn in tours over the summer and so far here this winter,” said Hillyard. “She said that she's making hardly much money here at this point, but doesn't want to lay off the staff who she cares so deeply about, not knowing what other job they turn to.”

Like Watkins, each of her employees buys their health care off the ACA exchanges. And all are now worried where they will turn for healthcare in the aftermath of exploding insurance costs.

“And so, while Donald Trump calls this economy ‘A+++,’ and the stock market is high, Pam doesn't have any stocks. The economy here at the local level, is a different reality for a great many people,” said Hillyard.