The holidays are here again. You know, the annual festival of goodwill, the forced spending, and the dawning realization that Santa and Satan are anagrams.
Even in the best of years, Americans reel through this season of economic uncertainty. But this year, the situation is even bleaker. And more and more Americans are feeling like the Grinch.
The unemployment rate is at a four-year high, declared Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. And a new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll finds that “the cost of living in the areas where they live is not very affordable or not at all affordable.”
Is help on the way? Not likely. Affordable Care Act subsidies are set to expire, and it is very likely that nothing will be done on this issue by the end of the year. This means millions of Americans will have ballooning health insurance bills. I am in no position to complain as I will also be charged a higher monthly premium.
Meanwhile, President Trump remains adamant about policies that will exacerbate the rising cost of living. President Trump’s tariffs will continue to drive up prices unless blocked by the Supreme Court. And when it comes to immigration enforcement, President Trump is clearly unfazed by the troubling fact that when workers are “disappeared” prices tend to rise.
Taken together, President Trump’s policies amount to an ambitious effort to raise the cost of living without benefiting from improved living standards. But if your money comes from investing in cryptocurrencies or Wall Street, you’re doing better than ever.
For the rest of us, the only good news is this. Unlike President Trump’s other scandals, most voters actually seem to care about what’s happening to their pockets.
Politico recently found that they did so for the simple reason that the 2025 gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia would be too expensive.
And Axios reports, “11 of 14 participants said they disapprove of Trump’s performance now, after all of them supported him last November. Additionally, 12 of 14 said they were more concerned about the economy now than they were in January.”
Apparently, inflation is the ultimate reality check, which is scary news for Republicans.
Trump’s great talent has always been his audacity to employ the ploy of “fake it until you make it” to project enough certainty to win us over.
His latest (attempted) Jedi mind trick involves claiming that the price is “”, which is not supported by data or the actual experience of shoppers.
He also says that inflation is “. This is only true if you define “gone” as “.”
Trump may dismiss the affordability crisis as a “” or ”, but voters continue to believe in grocery scanners.
In response, President Trump has warned that falling prices could lead to “deflation,” which he says is even worse than inflation. His economic theory isn’t wrong, but given that prices aren’t going down, there doesn’t seem to be much worth worrying about.
Apparently, economic sensitivity is something that can only be acquired after winning the White House.
President Trump, understandably, wants to blame Joe Biden, who left office wobbly 11 months ago. And yes, the disruption caused by the pandemic and massive stimulus checks have accelerated inflation. But voters elected Trump to fix the problem, and he promised to do it “on day one.”
Without tangible results, President Trump is returning to what has worked for him in the past: believing that if he repeats himself confidently enough, his version of reality will trump the math.
The problem now is that positive thinking cannot be swiped at the register.
You can lie about the size of the inauguration crowd. Ordinary people can’t measure it, and no one cares. But you can’t say that prices are going down when you’re actively giving money to people waiting in line at the grocery store.
Pretending everything is fine gets worse when the billionaire president throws a Gatsby-themed party, renovates Lincoln’s bedroom, and builds a huge new ballroom in the White House. The optics are terrible and are sure to encourage political backlash.
But the main problem is the main problem.
At the end of the day, what voters really care about is their wallets. No amount of spinning or “manifesting” into alternate realities will change that.
Matt K. Lewis is the author of “.” and “”
