President Donald Trump’s numbers on job approval and the economy have sunk to record lows. His aides know it. His former advisers are saying so publicly. And yet the president keeps talking about what he wants to talk about, not the issues voters say are driving their discontent — much to the White House’s chagrin.
As the U.S. war with Iran stretches into its fourth month — driving up gas and grocery prices and stoking inflation — Trump has instead devoted time to topics that make some of his own staff wince. There’s his latest construction projects, including the new White House ballroom and the renovation of the reflecting pool on the National Mall. There’s the purge of Republican lawmakers deemed insufficiently loyal, most recently four-term Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. The SAVE America Act. The Abraham Accords. The $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to pay out people who his Justice Department believes have been unjustly targeted by the government for partisan reasons — a group that potentially includes people convicted of violent crimes associated with the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The list goes on.
In response, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has given her staffers a simple directive: Stick to the affordability script and let Trump be Trump, according to a White House official granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal strategy.
“There are two tracks: There is what the president says, and then there’s what you as a staff member message on,” said the White House official.
Cabinet secretaries have attempted to fill the gap by including affordability messaging into their respective departments’ efforts, the official said. They pointed to recent moves by the Small Business Administration to reduce fraud in loan guarantees, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s quest to roll back certain grocery store refrigeration requirements. Both moves were sold publicly as moves to bring down costs.
Polling suggests the two-track approach isn’t working. A recent New York Times/Siena survey found just 38 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s performance, a record low during his second term. A Gallup poll found that confidence in the economy has hit a nearly four-year low, with only 16% of respondents rating the economy as in “excellent” or “good” condition; three in four Americans said that economic conditions are worsening.
When Trump has stayed on topic, he has tried to assure the public that prices will come down once the war in Iran ends — a “detour,” he has described it — and pointed to a record-high stock market. Those talking points are unlikely to prove effective with a restive public that believes the economy is in poor shape.
One especially illustrative moment came during a visit to the ballroom construction site last week. Speaking to reporters against the backdrop, Trump dismissed rising gas prices as “peanuts” and said he appreciated “everybody putting up with it for a little while.”
It was, former advisers say, a perfect encapsulation of the problem.
One former adviser said Trump’s current advisers were “no longer effective” in either arming the president with sound advice or successfully persuading the president to follow their guidance.
“While beautifying our nation’s capital is surely important and appreciated, if you don’t live, work, or visit DC, you don’t really reap the benefits of the president’s passion projects,” said a former Trump White House official granted anonymity to speak candidly. “What people do feel is $4.50 gas, and that’s the real passion point for Americans.”
“I think it’s a failure on the part of his staff,” the aforementioned former Trump adviser told MS NOW. “They’re not focused on the issues that Americans are focused on, which is obviously, affordability.”
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The former adviser was particularly critical of the White House’s handling of the $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund and the ballroom construction project, as well as some of the Trump administration’s recent immigration policies and Trump’s efforts to purge incumbent Republicans in Congress, which the former adviser called “silly intra-party feuds” and a “misplaced priority.”
“While obviously the president is going to do what the president is going to do, his staff has just so ill-prepared him or ill-informed him of the political consequences of what he’s doing,” the former adviser said. “It’s malpractice.”
In response to a request for comment for this article, the White House communications director Steven Cheung disputed MS NOW’s reporting. “None of these low-level, unnamed sources actually know what’s actually going on. By peddling lies and falsehoods, they’re actually trying to hurt the country and the President’s agenda, in which they will fail,” Cheung said. “The directive has always been to tell the story of the President and his agenda, and highlight all the wonderful successes that have been achieved for the American people.”
A summer of challenges ahead
In the coming weeks, the White House will face its latest messaging challenge: An extravagant America’s 250th celebration — one which the White House hopes draws millions of Americans to DC in celebration — as gas and travel prices remain stubbornly high.
On June 14 — which is also Trump’s birthday — the administration and the UFC are planning a sprawling celebration on the South Lawn as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary festivities, including a major fight card and a watch party at the adjacent Ellipse that could draw tens of thousands of people.
The event is intended as a showcase of national pride. But travel analysts and airline executives are already warning of significant fare increases tied to rising fuel costs from the Iran conflict — a larger backdrop that could complicate the festive framing.
Privately, some White House staffers have grown uneasy. But insiders say there is little appetite — or realistic path — toward a formal messaging reset.
“There’s no new messaging approach. There can be no new approach. You can’t do that with [Trump],” a White House official said.
Jake Traylor is a White House correspondent for MS NOW.
Soorin Kim is a White House producer with MS NOW.