Putting a billionaire back in the White House and hoping he would solve the economic problems of the working class never made sense, but that’s exactly what white working-class voters did in the 2024 presidential election.
Trump immediately took office and demonstrated why this was not a good idea, as within months he launched a trade war and declared that inflation had been corrected, even though that was certainly not the case.
Most voters, when forced to choose between what’s happening in their own finances or a politician’s sales pitch, will defer to their own experiences.
The economy is a problem that Trump has not been able to extricate himself from. Trump keeps telling the American people that their economy is great, but people go to the grocery store and see the opposite.
The bulk of the voters who sent Trump to the White House were white, working-class voters. Trump has been able to play on their resentments and anger for a decade.
Trump won working class voters by 34 points in 2024. In that same election, House Republicans won working class voters by 33 points. All these advantages are now gone.