With just over 100 days until the midterm elections, a new poll finds Americans feeling as badly about the U.S. economy and feeling less enthused than candidates with MAGA as part of their campaign.
The CNBC All-America Economic Survey, which polled 1,000 voters from July 8 to July 12, found 57 percent of respondents said they unlikely to support self-identified MAGA candidates this year, compared with 32 percent who said they are unlikely to support a democratic socialist.
The findings could be bad news for Trump and the Republicans come November, when voters will decide control of the two houses of Congress. Republicans currently hold a slim majority in both, so anger toward the MAGA candidates, who have won many primaries, could turn the tide and allow the Democrats to control Congress for the rest of President Donald Trump’s term.
The poll also found a whopping 61 percent feel pessimistic about the current American economy and their future outlook for the same.
That’s the highest number of people feeling pessimistic about the economy since December 2023 when post-pandemic inflation was only starting to fade.
By contrast, the same survey found just a quarter of Americans — 25 percent — reported feeling optimistic about the economy and its future.
A similar supermajority of voters, 60 percent, said they disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy compared with 38 percent who said they approve of the same.
Only 3 percent of respondents said they’d rank the economy as “excellent” right now versus 41 percent who said “fair” and 24 percent who said they consider conditions “good” right now, the poll found.
The dismal polling results for Trump and his party come as voters prepare to choose whether to allow Republicans to maintain the unified control of Washington they have had since Trump was sworn into office for a second term along with GOP majorities in both the House and Senate.
With elections fast approaching, Trump has largely eschewed discussions of his administration’s economic record in favor of attacking the credibility of the American electoral system as he did in the days before and after his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
On Thursday, Trump used a rare prime-time address to raise concern about the security of America’s elections and alleged Chinese efforts to interfere in the election he lost nearly six years ago.
Speaking from the East Room of the White House, Trump said he was releasing “critical intelligence” showing “shocking vulnerabilities” in America’s election system in a bid to pressure the current Republican-led Congress to pass partisan voting restriction legislation he has deemed essential to helping his party retain control of the House and Senate.
