Affordability concerns sink Trump ratings

Voters across the board are increasingly worried about the economy, polls show.

- BY MICHAEL WILNER

RONALDO BOLANOS Los Angeles Times POLLS SHOW a majority of Americans in all demographic groups increasingly concerned about the economy.

Weeks after suffering bruising election losses across the country, and facing an unusually tight special congressional race in ruby red Tennessee, President Trump told reporters Tuesday that a “fake” national narrative has taken hold of an economy in trouble.

Americans are employed and consuming more than ever, he said. Foreign tariffs and investments are bringing in trillions of dollars. “The word ‘affordability,’ ” Trump added, “is a Democrat scam.”

It was a message in defiance of stark public opinion polling that shows a clear majority of Americans, across all ages and demographic groups, increasingly concerned with the state of the economy and the president's approach.

A Fox News poll released before Thanksgiving found that 76% of respondents viewed the economy negatively. Surveys conducted since the holiday put Trump at the lowest point of his second term and lower than any of his predecessors at this point in their second term since President Nixon.

Gallup found that 36% approve of his job performance, with 60% disapproving, and an Economist/YouGov poll saw only 32% of Americans support Trump’s response to the country’s affordability crisis.

“Trump was not shy about promising to lower prices on day one,” said William Galston, chair of the governance studies program at the Brookings Institution. “Not only do they not see prices coming down, but they don’t believe he is focused on those problems, taking the type of bold steps they expected him to take on the economy.”

Four key voter blocs — young adults 18 to 29 years old, Latinos, moderates and independents — are among those that swung most dramatically to Trump in last year's election and are most likely to respond to changing circumstances. “He is doing badly with all of them,” Galston said.