Longtime Republican pollster turned anti-Trump analyst Sarah Longwell had a blunt message for President Donald Trump on MS NOW Wednesday: your denials of the affordability crisis, such as your speech in Pennsylvania this week, are not landing with voters.
"When he just, you know, politically wet the bed and said you don't need any dolls or pencils — I mean, what do you, I guess we just hope that [White House Chief of Staff] Susie Wiles is right and Donald Trump is out there on the ballot in the midterms," said anchor Nicolle Wallace.
"Yeah, there's nothing like a groggy-sounding billionaire telling you you need fewer things going into Christmas," said Longwell.
"Here's the thing about Trump and this affordability problem," Longwell continued. "Voters absolutely know this is Trump's economy. They are trying to do this thing where they say, 'Oh, well, we're digging ourselves out of the terrible Biden economy, even if Republican voters are up for kind of saying, well, Trump has a big mess to fix, we've got to give him some time. Nobody thinks things are getting less expensive. Everybody knows prices are going up. It is the number one thing I hear from Republicans, independents, Democrats — everything is too expensive."
Furthermore, she added, voters broadly blame Trump's tariffs as the reason.
"Because Donald Trump made such a big deal about the tariffs, because he talked about them so relentlessly. He owns the tariffs, and he owns this economy," said Longwell. "There is no passing the buck. I do not hear from voters saying, well, you know, this is all Joe Biden's fault. Like, even the ones who like Trump, who think that they need to give him more time, are kind of rubbing their hands together, saying, 'Boy, I thought things were going to get better faster. Yeah, I know, I know, he needs time, but the tariffs are not helping things.'"
"And so this is an Achilles heel like Donald Trump has never had," she continued. "Not just because things are so bad for people, but because it is on the issue that they hired him to handle. They believed the Trump salesman selling them the Trump Steak, the Trump University, the Trump, 'Hey, I'm going to lower your grocery prices on day one.' And they are feeling that lie now."
Further, she added, "They also see the contrast of, is he protecting the billionaire class through Epstein? Why is he building a ballroom? Why isn't he focused on the economy? This is what I'm hearing from voters. And it's become, you know, you and I talked about this many, many months ago, and I was like, you know, there's starting to be this little bit of buyer's remorse on the economy. It has now reached a fever pitch, and he owns it entirely."
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