The cracks in President Donald Trump’s MAGA base widened after his rambling national address on the economy on Wednesday night, according to Republican insiders.
In his televised primetime speech, Trump sought to defuse public dissatisfaction with his presidency by pointing fingers at former President Joe Biden. He tried and failed to paint a rosy picture of the economy, even as cost-of-living pressures continue to drag down his approval ratings.
The president has spent months attempting to convince voters that his economic agenda is delivering results, even as many Americans struggle with high prices. He has repeatedly dismissed affordability concerns as a “hoax,” frustrating many of his own voters.
He didn’t repeat that claim during Wednesday’s address, “in what came as a relief to his advisers and GOP officials,” The Washington Post reported.
But his oft-repeated claims about having “inherited a mess” that he is now supposedly “fixing” came up empty, and Republicans were disappointed.
The “execution was abysmal,” a Republican guru who served in the first Trump administration told Politico of the 18-minute speech.
“He’s a very effective salesman when his heart is in it or when he’s on the attack,” the GOP insider said. “But the ‘I feel your pain’ speech — he just doesn’t have that club in his bag.”
The address apparently left some Republicans pessimistic about their party’s prospects in the 2026 midterm elections.
The criticism comes as Trump faces mounting scrutiny over his handling of the economy during his second term. Lowering grocery prices was a central promise of his 2024 campaign, and the issue remains key as rising household costs shape voter sentiment.
Late last month, the president’s ratings cratered to the lowest levels of his second term. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday found that just 33 percent of U.S. adults approved of his handling of the economy.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
One GOP operative overseeing some midterm races told CNN that Trump “can’t happy talk his way out of what people feel.”
“The White House staff around the president know what the message needs to be, and I wish that the president would listen,” the source said.
According to the Post, Trump’s advisers have urged him to talk about the economy in ways that connect with middle- and working-class voters facing financial strain. But the president instead chose to brag about a soaring stock market.
Two senior White House officials told the newspaper that mounting voter anger over the economy pushed Trump to plan a sharp increase in campaign-style rallies next year, with the president expected to hit the road almost weekly after holding relatively few events since winning the election.
One Trump voter slammed the president’s planned affordability tour as “tone-deaf” in a scathing op-ed published in USA Today last week, which called for him to “stop mocking affordability.”
He made his first stop in Pennsylvania and additional tour stops are expected later this month and into the new year nationwide, according to Axios.
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