Donald Trump is facing increasing sniping from members of his own party that he is ignoring the mood of the country when it comes to the economy and voters turn on him.
According to a report from the Washington Post’s Naftali Bendavid, the president is now faced with a “new reality” that he can no longer convince even some of his most ardent supporters that his words are turning into deeds as prices rise and he ridicules the idea of “affordability.”
The report notes that long-time Republican Party stalwart Newt Gingrich has been increasingly raising the alarm that the GOP is being trapped by Trump’s inaction.
As the former House Speaker from Georgia explained, “Any Republican who refuses to admit we have an affordability problem is not listening to the American people. It’s real because the American people think it’s real. I cannot overstate that — in a free country it’s the people who define what is real, not the politicians.”
Gingrich added that Trump is not up to the task by pointing out, “Psychologically, he hates to admit being in a hole.”
The Post is reporting, “Trump’s plight is a striking turnabout. In last year’s campaign, Trump scored political points by highlighting Americans’ inflation concerns, and President Joe Biden faced the almost impossible task of convincing voters they were not as bad off as they thought.”
Now the president finds himself in the same boat with no indication that he is willing to change course and, as the Post is reporting, White House aides “appears to sense political danger.”
According to Brent Buchanan, CEO of Cygnal, a Republican polling firm, the difference between how Trump sees the reality on the ground and those who have failed to convince him of the dangers has resulted in a muddled message to disenchanted voters.
“The biggest piece is message discipline and acknowledging how people feel — not telling them that things are affordable and you shouldn’t be complaining,” he explained. “If your message is Venezuela one day, Ukraine the next, telling them things are affordable, telling them Democrats made up affordability … voters then become concerned that you are not worried about what they are worried about.”
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