Allies of President Donald Trump, speaking to Politico, said that his plummeting economic approval is “baffling” as the rich prosper while the poor struggle, with one former adviser saying that he “just can’t quite get [his] arms around” the problem.
“President Donald Trump’s economy has exceeded expectations in his first year back in office,” Politico’s Wednesday stated. “Mainly for America’s wealthiest households, that is.”
According to available data, spending splurges by the wealthiest Americans are keeping “Trump’s economy humming,” with the Royal Bank of Canada finding that the wealthiest 10 percent of the country spent around $20.3 trillion this year, nearly matching the spending of all other earners combined, $22.5 trillion. The US economy, juiced by the wealthy, grew by 4.3 percent in the 3rd quarter. Bank of America also reported 4 percent growth in income from its top earners, compared to the much more stagnant 1.4 percent for lower earners.
“That splurge has been primed by a buoyant stock market, elevated real estate prices and solid wage gains for the wealthy,” Politico added.
Despite these gains for the wealthy, middle-to-lower-income earners are still feeling the pinch of soaring prices, and broadly feel as if Trump is not doing enough to fix the cost of living and does not seem to care. Democrats who ran on platforms focused on affordability saw major electoral victories in 2025’s off-year elections, signaling the potential for impending GOP doom in the 2026 midterms if things do not turn around for the average consumer.
According to Politico, some of Trump’s own allies remain stumped as to how things can be going so well economically for the president, on paper, while his approval across the board is tanking, including Stephen Moore, an economist and former adviser to the president who has worked with the administration on its messaging.
“I’m mystified by the whole argument about affordability. I just can’t quite get my arms around it because it’s a really, really strong economy right now,” Moore told Politico. “If the trends continue as they have over the last six months, it’s going to be harder and harder for the Democrats to sustain this narrative that it’s not a good economy.”
Pundits have increasingly compared Trump’s handling of economic messaging to the tactics that ultimately sank the presidency of Joe Biden. While Biden oversaw an economy that, in many ways, rebounded substantially from the ravages of COVID-19 and saw historic stock market gains, everyday Americans felt little of that prosperity, feeling the pinch of major inflation that kicked off in 2022. Despite these troubles, Biden frequently claimed that things were good, and that consumers were just not getting the right message, just as Trump has done in recent months.
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