The Washington Post does a piece on the cost TO Americans of the Trump second Presidency….
With midterm elections just a week away, Trump’s approval rating for handling the economy has plummeted. For the first time in more than a decade, polls show that voters trust Democrats more on the economy — the issue they say they care about most.
But how has the economy really changed under Trump?
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Buoyed by strong consumer spending and business investment, the economy has proven resilient this year, despite energy shocks and persistent inflation.
Though overall economic growth slowed slightly in the second quarter, the U.S. economy is growing at a stable 2.2 percent rate. This is not much different than under President Joe Biden, since the rockier measurements during the pandemic have evened out…
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The federal debt also hit a new high in August, reaching $40 trillion months earlier than expected in part because of lost revenue from Trump’s invalidated tariffs. Trump also signed a big tax cut law last year and has sought billions in new spending for immigration enforcement and the war in Iran, among other priorities….
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Perhaps the biggest economic issue plaguing Americans is the rate of inflation, which has remained stubbornly above the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2 percent for more than five years.
Driven skyward during the pandemic, inflation was finally beginning to settle down when Trump took office last year. But then in February, the U.S. and Israel invaded Iran and inflation rebounded. In September, it reached an annual pace of 3.7 percent — due largely to spikes in energy costs….
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Relentlessly rising prices have soured Americans on the economy and made affordability a central issue in the midterms. Trump won the 2024 presidential race on a pledge to bring down everyday prices, and while some categories have seen price drops, many others are still climbing…
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Prices at the pump have spiked about 37 percent since Trump took office last year, in one of the most visible effects of the Iran war. Rising energy prices have eaten into Americans’ budgets, raising the cost of getting to work or the store and contributing to rising prices for goods and groceries….
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Mortgage rates hit 7.4 percent this month for a 30-year home loan, the highest level in three years. Rates had dipped below 7 percent when Trump took office, and fell throughout the first year of his second term…
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If you have a job, you’re in a good spot. If not, it can be hard to find one, especially for new college graduates….
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Apart from a huge covid-fueled spike during 2020 and 2021, the unemployment rate has stayed relatively low through both Trump’s and Biden’s presidencies. Two factors supporting that trend: baby boomers retiring and immigrants facing new work restrictions….
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And average hourly earnings fell 0.5 percent from August to September as energy price spikes fed into inflation.
That means people’s purchasing power is eroding, leaving many feeling they are falling behind financially. “Around the kitchen table, the resilience of the U.S. economy is not resonating,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG….
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And many households received higher-than-usual tax refunds this spring as a result of tax cuts in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
But there’s evidence that people are dipping into their savings to keep up. In August, the personal savings rate fell to its lowest level in nearly four years…..
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