Putting a billionaire back in the White House and hoping he would solve working-class economic problems never made sense, but that’s exactly what white working-class voters did in the 2024 presidential election.
Trump immediately took office and showed why this was not a good idea, as within a few months he launched a trade war and declared that inflation had been fixed, even though that was absolutely not the case.
When most voters are forced to choose between what happens to their own finances or a politician’s sales pitch, they will follow their own experiences.
The economy is a problem that Trump has not been able to solve. Trump keeps telling the American people that his economy is great, but people go to the grocery store and see differently.
The backbone of the voters who returned Trump to the White House were white working-class voters. Trump has been able to play on their resentment and anger for a decade.
Trump won working-class voters by 34 points in 2024. In that same election, Republicans won working-class voters in the House of Representatives by 33 points. All these benefits are now gone.
