There is a gap, wide as the Susquehanna River, between what President Donald Trump says about the economy and what American voters say they are feeling in their wallets.
The president traveled to Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday night to make his case directly to the people. Speaking for nearly two hours at a casino resort, Trump laid out statistics and charts showing declining prices and rising wages under his watch. The question hanging in the air is whether those numbers match the reality families see at the grocery store checkout line.
“They caused the high prices, and we’re bringing them down,” Trump told the assembled crowd. “Lower prices, bigger paychecks. We’re crushing inflation, and you’re getting much higher wages. The only thing that is really going up big is the stock market and your 401ks.”
The president’s visit comes at a pivotal moment. Democrats have swept a series of elections in 2025, and they did it by hammering away at one central theme: affordability. Republicans are now scrambling to recalibrate their economic messaging heading into the midterms, a sure sign that something in their approach has not been connecting with voters.
Trump shared specific wage data to bolster his argument. According to the president, real wages plummeted by three thousand dollars under Joe Biden. By contrast, Trump claimed that factory workers have seen their real wages increase by thirteen hundred dollars under his second administration, construction workers by over eighteen hundred dollars, and miners by thirty-three hundred dollars.
The president also pointed to grocery prices. Citing a report from Walmart, Trump said the cost of a full Thanksgiving meal is twenty-five percent cheaper under his administration than under Biden. Turkey prices alone, he noted, are down thirty-three percent. Egg prices have dropped eighty percent since March, according to Trump.
These are the kinds of numbers that should resonate with voters. Yet a November national survey paints a starkly different picture. Some seventy-six percent of voters reported viewing the economy negatively, up from sixty-seven percent in July. That negative sentiment has actually increased since the end of Biden’s term, when seventy percent held unfavorable views.
When Trump graded his own economic performance in a recent interview, he gave himself an “A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus.” That kind of self-assessment does not square with what three-quarters of the American people are saying about their economic circumstances.
This disconnect matters, and it matters deeply. Republicans have traditionally owned the economy as an issue. It has been their bread and butter, their strongest card to play. But when Democrats can win elections by focusing on affordability, something fundamental has shifted in the political landscape.
The challenge for Trump and Republicans is not simply about statistics and charts. It is about perception versus reality, about whether the improvements they cite are reaching the kitchen tables of working Americans. A family struggling to pay rent does not care much about stock market gains if they do not own stocks. A worker watching grocery bills climb month after month will not be consoled by national wage averages if their own paycheck is not stretching far enough.
The president is betting that his message will eventually break through, that voters will come to see the economy through his lens. Whether that bet pays off may well determine the outcome of the midterm elections and the trajectory of his second term. The people of Pennsylvania, and Americans across this nation, will render their verdict soon enough.
Related: Texas Democrat Jasmine Crockett Launches Senate Bid Using Trump Insults as Campaign Strategy
