'He's never lived up to his word': Professor reacts to Trump's handling of the economy

[0:00] Joining us staff writer at The Atlantic, Yvonne Winget Sanchez, co-host of the Prof. G. Markets [0:04] podcast, Ed Elson, and co-host of FAQ NYC podcast, and associate professor of political science at [0:11] Fordham University, Christina Greer. Yvonne, thanks for being with us. I want to hear more [0:16] about these conversations. I talk to voters like you all the time. I spent a lot of time in two [0:26] of the nation's most competitive House districts, which are located here in Arizona. One is based [0:32] in Scottsdale, very wealthy, very educated. The other is outside of Phoenix, sort of in the [0:39] southeastern part of the state. Voters, no matter where you go, are very angry. Trump voters are [0:48] feeling the effects of the decision to go to war in Iran, and they are directly connecting that [0:55] decision to the president. There's no middlemen here who can be blamed for this sort of decision. [1:02] This is a very direct correlation. They are canceling summer vacations. They are pulling [1:07] back purchases for their small businesses. They are skipping Bible classes. And come November, [1:14] they may skip voting altogether, or they may vote for Democrats or a third-party candidate. And in a [1:22] state where races, statewide races are decided on the margins, and these races will be decided [1:28] by perhaps just a few hundred voters, maybe a few thousand, these sorts of sentiments really start to [1:36] matter. They really come into focus, and they're coming into focus now with people getting walloped at [1:42] the pocketbooks and Trump coming into town today. Were you as surprised as I was to hear voters express [1:49] regret for having voted for Donald Trump? There was a moment, a brief moment, maybe after January 6, [1:56] where people felt that, maybe just a brief one. But usually it's pretty hard to find anyone [2:03] saying that they thought they made a mistake. It was really interesting to hear people put their [2:10] names behind it. These are people wanting to go on the record to say, I'm not down with what's [2:16] happening. And that, to me, was pretty surprising, especially in Representative Juan Sescomani's [2:24] district. This is a district that really represents the coalition, the MAGA coalition that Trump assembled [2:31] in 24. Lots of Latino voters, lots of working-class voters. I mean, these are people who are paying [2:39] $6 a gallon in diesel. And for them to be willing to say on the record, you know, a lot of Catholic [2:45] voters, too, keep in mind. So the one-two punch with the fight with the Pope, the F-bomb, you know, [2:51] on Easter, and the effects that they're feeling at their grocery stores, where they are paying $6 or $9, [3:00] $9.50 for chicharrones in a rural town outside of Phoenix. They are feeling it. And they're so angry that [3:09] they're willing to put their names behind it. That is an insane price. Let me play Donald Trump [3:14] talking about gas prices. Well, they're not very high. If you look at what they were supposed to be [3:25] in order to get rid of a nuclear weapon. Don't forget, we're having some fake inflation because [3:29] of the fuel, the energy prices. The numbers are really tremendous. And that's why I'm out here. [3:34] If they were bad, I wouldn't be here today. I'd be sitting home watching television. [3:38] All right. So gas prices are not that high, Christina. Inflation is fake. The refund numbers [3:44] are great. By the way, we've done the math on the refund. The average refund, $350. The average [3:49] household cost of gas for this year is going to be around $740. 350, by the way, is above last year's [4:00] refund. So it's been wiped away, completely wiped away and more by the cost of gas. And the president, [4:06] does he sound like he's in touch with Americans? Not at all. And Yvonne's fantastic piece sort of [4:11] laid out, Americans go to the polls for pocketbook issues. And we have seen Donald Trump's voters [4:17] ignore realities in the past. So when he says, well, housing prices might be a little bit more, [4:21] you'll be fine with it. And by and large, they were going along with a lot of things because, [4:25] as you said, that January 6th disappointment did not last very long. But that also wasn't a direct [4:31] pocketbook issue. That was a more of a moral issue. We know that his diehard supporters don't really care [4:35] about moral issues when it comes to this particular president. What we're seeing now is something [4:40] drastically different. We're seeing people have to change their lives on a daily basis because of [4:45] choices he's made. He made a lot of promises, specifically America being first. So it wasn't [4:51] as though Iran attacked America or American bases or even American allies in a specific or explicit way. [4:58] Donald Trump chose to ally himself with Bibi Netanyahu and go into Iran. And a lot of Americans, [5:04] one, are still looking for justification because, two, everything, all of their pocketbook issues [5:09] have skyrocketed since that decision was made, which he said would be done in a few days once [5:14] his bones felt that it was finished. So one of the voters that we heard from was a woman, [5:19] Ed, who voted for the first time last election. It was for Donald Trump. She's 19. And she's been so [5:26] distressed by what she's saying or so frustrated, disillusioned, that her response was, [5:32] I don't believe in the system at all, which is not. It's a pretty common thing to hear, [5:37] especially from from younger voters. Why participate in this system? It's not working [5:41] for me. It's rigged. How does a party or a candidate that wants to convince a voter to [5:48] come out and vote for them promise to be somebody for the future, not just, as I said, a check on the [5:53] present? Well, that's going to be the question for the Democratic Party. But I think it's going to be [6:00] pretty easy in contrast to what we've seen from this administration, because I mean, [6:05] the reason that young people, especially right now, don't trust in the system is because [6:11] in this election cycle, they've been lied to flat out on basically every single issue. [6:16] And this is what I think is quite stunning about about the piece and also some of the interviews [6:20] that we that we saw there. I mean, Americans have kind of a tolerance for BS. We've seen that in the [6:27] past. But I think what we're beginning to learn here is their tolerance isn't that high. And [6:34] they've been lied to too many times now on too many different issues. We mentioned a couple of them. [6:39] The foreign wars one is a perfect one because it is so in your face. It's so obvious. This was the [6:45] no wars president. He was getting angry at the previous administration for being involved in other wars. [6:51] And of course, he launches an offensive on Venezuela. But then more importantly, [6:55] he launches an attack and a war on Iran. We also talked about the inflation problem. This was the [6:59] big idea. He's going to bring down inflation. And of course, he does two things that are the most [7:06] inflationary policy actions you could ever come up with, which is creating these tariffs and also [7:12] launching this war, which increases the oil prices. But then there are other things like balancing the [7:17] budget. And this was the thing he said in the first congressional address that got all of the [7:21] applause. We're going to balance the budget. Elon Musk comes in there. He creates Doge. We're going to [7:26] get rid of $2 trillion worth of spending. And of course, they increase the deficit. We're on track [7:30] to $2.5 trillion in deficit spending this year. That was another one. Get rid of corruption in the [7:36] White House. Get rid of corruption in DC. And then we see this explosion in insider trading. Housing prices [7:42] is another one. He says he wants to increase the price of housing because he wants to make [7:46] homeowners even wealthier. I mean, there are so many different issues on which he has fundamentally [7:52] lied in such a big way that I think it gets to a point for Americans and for young people and for all [7:57] of this, frankly, which is we're starting to recognize all of this was a lie, not just a little piece of [8:04] this, but literally all of it. And it's becoming too much at this point. [8:08] Well, let me play another voter basically saying that. This is Jesse Wilbur. We don't have this [8:15] sound. Jesse Wilbur, owner of Survival. You know, we don't have it, unfortunately. But he says, [8:19] I did believe drain the swamp. It never happened. I believed in accountability. That it was coming. [8:26] It never happened. I believed things would be different and that they are different in a lot [8:30] of ways that I really love, but not for the most important ways. My priorities are simple. God, [8:35] family, country, faith, morality, values, and truth. Those come before any man, before any party. [8:41] This is how great nations fail. When people stop questioning, when loyalty replaces principles, [8:47] that's when countries fail because history shows it comes when leaders and institutions lose all [8:53] credibility. We already went through that blank with Obama and Biden. I supported him and I was wrong. [8:59] He has a lot of damage. He has done a lot of damage. He's got to undo it. And I really hope he does. [9:03] I mean, I wish we had the soundbite because that's pretty well said. And it lines up exactly, [9:09] exactly with what Ed was saying, Christina. Well, I mean, this, this gentleman's a little [9:13] late to the party in the sense that, you know, but you know what, it's a good idea to say you [9:17] should have known better. Or do you say, okay, fine. You see it now. Let's listen. I'm an educator. [9:22] I'm glad when you, you see the light. However, Donald Trump showed us a lot of this in the first [9:26] term. And there are a lot of people who just refuse to recognize it. It's essentially the rest of the [9:30] country has become New York. Now, New Yorkers have known Donald Trump for decades and he has been a [9:35] grifter. He has never lived up to his word. Every company he's had, he's bankrupted. And so he has [9:39] just been a colossal failure in the city of New York, but with great advertising and marketing, [9:45] people have thought that he was a successful businessman and he's a great communicator. [9:48] And he taps into people's fears and their desires and their aspirations. And there's a, [9:53] there was a reason why he has won twice in this country. We can go through all the list of [9:58] reasons why. But for now though, in the present, when Americans are saying you seem distracted by [10:04] this ballroom, you seem distracted by this arch. You seem distracted by this war. You seem distracted [10:09] by fighting with the Pope who represents 1.2 billion people. Posting images of yourself as Jesus. [10:15] As Jesus that are doctors. So now you think you're a doctor. You are rambling when we're supposed to have [10:19] meetings about national and international ideas. And you're talking about pens and windows. Like there is [10:25] a lack of focus. And I don't know if it's, you know, I'm not that kind of doctor, but I don't know [10:31] if there's something, uh, cerebrally wrong and challenged with the president that we need to [10:36] focus on. Or if he's just distracted and he thinks that he's so used to throwing so much at the American [10:41] public, they've usually just allowed him to do so. Do you buy that Donald Trump could live in this [10:45] city for as long as he did and not know what a corner store is? Oh no. I mean, there's no, [10:50] I don't, I think Brooke Astor knew what a corner store is. Exactly. How could you not? But I think [10:54] that the cognitive decline that we are witnessing in real time, that we are pretending that we're [10:59] not witnessing in real time is something that makes me wonder. Have you just forgotten? Yes. [11:04] Have you forgotten what the word groceries means?