Voters who backed Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election are jumping ship ahead of the midterms, and a crucial issue is pushing them.
A number of voters who cast their ballot for the Republican Party last year suggested they would be looking for other candidates in the 2026 elections, according to focus groups conducted by NBC News.
Robert L. described Trump's comments on inflation "delusional" and prove the president is "out of touch" with the average voter. Another panel member, Justin K., believes Trump has not "tried at all" to soothe economic hardships. The tariff policy, in particular, was a sore spot for voters, with some considering it a "tax on the American people."
David S. said, "Tariffs are a tax on the American people. That’s who pays for it, so I don’t support it. Every tariff that is put in place, from when Biden is putting ‘em in place, Trump putting them in place, they are taxes on the people who are importing. The people who are buying those imports are paying the tax."
CNN analyst David Goldman had earlier suggested Trump's economic plan is "classic hyperbole" from the president.
He wrote, "Trump claimed that a strong stock market could boost economic growth by up to 20 percent a year. That’s classic Trump hyperbole – the U.S. economy has never grown by even 9 percent in a single year, and the fastest growth of the past four decades took place in 2021 – Biden’s first term – when the economy bounced back from the pandemic to surge 6.1 percent."
"That’s also not how the economy works: The stock market itself doesn’t contribute much to economic growth – it boosts wealthier Americans’ net worth, but the market is more a reflection of investors’ predictions about where the economy is headed than an economic engine in its own right," Goldman wrote.
Trump's "general sentiment" was described as true by Goldman, though he did warn the Federal Reserve "doesn't operate in the way Trump describes.
