President Trump has spent every day since “Liberation Day” trapped in an endless economic nightmare of his own creation. The fallout from his disastrous tariff policy sent the nation’s GDP tumbling 0.3 percent, and sent Capitol Hill Republicans scrambling for political cover after a cascade of rough new approval polls.
Skyrocketing consumer costs will be the topic of many a swing-state cookout as millions of Americans prepare for Memorial Day weekend, egged on by a recent viral video in which Target employees leaked details of the massive price hikes just about to hit store shelves. Meanwhile, the big brains in the West Wing seem more concerned about bug-bombing Elon Musk out of the White House than they are about fixing Trump’s mess.
Preoccupied by the drama of MAGA-land palace politics and his ethically dubious cryptocurrency fundraising scheme, Trump allowed his trade policies to steer the nation into a multi-pronged economic crisis. Now even Wall Street veterans like Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio are warning that things could get much worse before they get better. It isn’t clear if anyone at the White House is even listening to the growing chorus of economic fire alarms.
Trump wagered that his team could work out the kinks in his half-baked tariff plan before most Americans felt the bite at the cash register. But the bite came sooner than expected, and Trump’s only response was to lash out at retailers like Walmart for refusing to “eat the tariffs” and spare him the political humiliation of failing so publicly.
Apparently the president expected American businesses to sacrifice their bottom lines in order to help bolster his own crumbling poll numbers. But Trump of all people should know better than to expect honor among businessmen. His own book, “The Art of the Deal,” warns against exactly that kind of “sucker” thinking. If bullying Walmart into covering for him was Trump’s Plan A, we should be terrified about what kind of magical thinking passes for his Plan B.
Is it any surprise that the Americans forced to witness their president’s feckless bumbling are losing faith in the economy at a staggering rate? Two in three adults now say they are confident a recession is coming. For the first time, those numbers also include a majority (53 percent) of Republicans and six in 10 independents. Nearly half of respondents predicted an economic downturn would hit before the end of the year.
Consumer confidence is also smashing against record lows, down nearly 30 points since January, thanks to the total confusion unleashed by Trump’s on-again, off-again, delayed-again games of tariff chicken. Nearly every person researchers spoke to mentioned Trump’s tariffs as the reason for their pessimism. It’s tough to imagine a more toxic combination of economic indicators for a GOP already grappling with irate voters back home.
There are even more dire signs that the market uncertainty unleashed by Trump’s tariffs could cause headaches for Republicans well into the future. This week, the 30-year Treasury yield topped 5 percent, the highest rate since Trump took office. Worse for consumers, mortgage rates ticked back above 7 percent even despite interest rate cuts at the Federal Reserve. Homeowners who cautiously stepped back into the market are once again retreating to the sidelines.
Most Americans are now priced out of buying a home due to steadily rising interest rates, which experts predict to last into the autumn. More Americans are feeling poorer and less upwardly mobile, and they are unified in who they blame for their misfortunes: Trump and his Republican enablers on Capitol Hill.
The Memorial Day holiday usually marks the first opportunity for a new administration to take a victory lap celebrating early-term victories. Those are few and far between in Trump’s second term, where all of the political oxygen has been sucked out of the room by the sheer scale of Republican economic mismanagement.
After building a victorious electoral coalition less than a year ago, many of Trump’s die-hard voters are now racked with regret over what has come to pass. Many of those voters now realize they are trapped in this economic nightmare with Trump, yet no one in the White House seems to care.
Some Republicans are hopeful that economic conditions will improve before the 2028 presidential election, but outraged voters have no intention of sitting on their hands for three long years. Trump’s tariff nightmare has revealed a Republican Party completely incapable of protecting and growing America’s economy, and their core voters have finally taken notice. When will the White House listen to them?
Max Burns is a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies.
