The latest national CNN poll, released earlier this month, offered unwelcome news for the White House: Donald Trump’s approval rating for his handling of the economy fell to just 31% — the lowest across both of the Republican president’s two terms — while 27% of Americans approved of his handling of inflation.
Overall, the same survey found that roughly two-thirds of Americans agreed that Trump’s policies have made the economy worse.
Soon after, a national poll from Quinnipiac University pointed in a similar direction, with findings that showed public support for the president’s handling of the economy matching a career low.
With data like this in mind, it’s not surprising that Team Trump seems to realize that it has a problem. Whether it knows what to do about that problem is another matter entirely.
When Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, for example, was asked Thursday about public attitudes, he replied, in reference to American consumers, “in their heart of hearts they feel good,” regardless of what they tell “the survey people.”
In other words, as the secretary sees it, Americans might claim to be dissatisfied, but deep down they’re secretly pleased. It’s a message rooted in the idea that, according to one of the administration’s most powerful officials, people who say they disapprove of the president’s handling of the economy don’t really mean it.
I have a hunch this won’t prove persuasive.
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Trump’s message was hardly better. During a brief Q&A with reporters at the White House on Thursday afternoon, the president was asked how much longer consumers should expect to see high gas prices. The Republican challenged the premise of the question.
Prices at the pump, Trump replied, are “not very high,” which probably wasn’t the message the public wanted to hear. At the same gaggle, he claimed that he inherited the worst in inflation in American history — an absurd assertion that, as the president surely knows, has been discredited many times. He added that as far as he’s concerned, inflation is “still low” right now, which also pits him against public attitudes.
The president soon after hosted an event in Las Vegas, where he argued that the U.S. economy is the best it’s ever been (yet another absurdity), while denouncing “fake inflation,” driven by the war he launched in Iran.
Taken together, it seemed as if Trump and his team decided the way to change public attitudes is to try to pull some kind of Jedi mind trick, telling people upset about the economy that the economy is great, telling people upset about high gas prices that gas prices are low, and telling people upset about inflation that inflation is “fake.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune was asked this week about the White House picking a fight with Pope Leo XIV, and the South Dakota Republican replied, “I’d stay focused on … the economic issues, pocketbook issues that most Americans care about, and let the church be the church.” That wasn’t bad advice, but it’d be more effective if Trump and his team had a more coherent message on economic issues.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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