January 21, 2026

President Trump won the 2024 election in large part by capitalizing on voter frustration with the economy, blaming the Biden administration for inflation and high prices and promising to bring them down. But a year into the second Trump administration, life is still expensive, and voter approval of Trump’s handling of the economy has steadily eroded. Trump now faces the challenge of defending an economy that he owns. 

Like President Joe Biden before him, Trump is being punished by voters for insisting the economy is better than their direct experience suggests. And like the Biden administration, the Trump White House is finding that voters react to this insistence with anger and frustration. Every appeal to statistics, every claim that prices have dropped, and every invocation of economists’ expertise is met with stiff voter resistance.

Trump is wrong to blame “bad public relations people” for “not getting it across” on his administration’s economic wins. The Biden administration made the same excuses.  It turns out that for Democratic and Republican presidents alike, “who are you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?” is a losing approach to economic policy. 

To assess how voters are responding to Trump administration economic messaging, Blueprint presented voters with ten recent quotes from senior Trump administration and Republican officials on inflation, prices, and the broader economy, asking voters how concerned they were by each one. 

The results find the Trump administration struggling with a credibility gap on the economy not dissimilar to the one that plagued the Biden administration in the leadup to the election—asking for patience and touting progress that many voters aren’t feeling. And while pinning inflation and high prices on Biden may have proved a successful electoral strategy, it appears significantly less effective now Trump is in power.

Key Findings

• “Affordability” strikes a chord. Two of the three statements voters overall find most concerning reference “affordability”—one where Trump dismisses the term, and one where he says it’s better under his administration—suggesting that the word is now a key frame for how voters view the economy. Notably, Trump’s characterization of “affordability” as “a fake narrative” and “con job by the Democrats” is the statement that most concerns both Republicans (+12 net concern) and independents (+33). 
• Bessent’s relocation advice backfires. Among voters overall (+27), as well as among both independents (+27) and Republicans (+7), Treasury Secretary Bessent’s citation of a Council of Economic Advisers study to suggest that Americans can avoid higher inflation by moving from blue states to red states ranks as the second-most concerning. The combination of an appeal to authority and shifting blame to the states lands badly with voters looking for the administration to take responsibility for addressing economic concerns.
• In the red with independents. While intensity is lower compared to Democrats, all quotes tested receive double-digit positive net concern from independents.

Independents: Among independents, all quotes tested see double-digit positive net concern. The statements independents find most concerning are Trump’s dismissal of “affordability” as “a fake narrative” and “con job by the Democrats” (+33), Bessent’s suggestion that Americans heed the Council on Economic Advisers study showing lower inflation in red states (+27), Trump’s assertion that “affordability is much, much better under [his] administration” (+27), and Vance’s acknowledgement—using egg prices as an example—that some Americans are “still feeling things are unaffordable” despite progress (+27). Intensity of concern is lowest for House Speaker Johnson’s claim that Republicans are “bullish about ideas to reduce the cost of living” and promising “an economic boom”—with examples of what that would look  like—by early 2026.

Republicans: Six of the 10 quotes tested receive negative net concern from Republicans, though the intensity of Republican non-concern is consistently significantly weaker than of independent and Democratic concern. The statements that see net positive concern from Republicans are Trump’s dismissal of “affordability” (+12), Bessent’s suggestion that Americans heed the Council on Economic Advisers study showing lower inflation in red states (+7), Bessent defending tariffs by saying “access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American Dream” (+3), and Vance’s acknowledgement—using egg prices as an example—that some Americans are “still feeling things are unaffordable” despite progress (+1). 

ABOUT THE POLL

Blueprint surveyed an online sample of 2,572 likely voters on December 5, 2025, weighted to gender, age, race, education, income, and 2024 presidential vote choice. The survey was conducted in English, and its margin of error is ±2.2 percentage points.

PRESS CONTACTS

Alyssa Cass
alyssa@slingshotstrat.com
347-992-5006

Evan Roth Smith
evan@slingshotstrat.com
646-240-0096

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