"Ruh roh", to quote Scooby Doo, on how Americans view the economy.
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) February 24, 2025
-Just 20% view it as excellent or good. Worse than at any pt during Trump's 1st term.
-"Yikes": 59% say the economy is getting worse… Worse than at any pre-covid pt during Trump's 1st term.
Danger territory. pic.twitter.com/MF38TDpAm8
I don’t know exactly why people are saying this but it may validate my hypothesis that the “bad economy” vibe is actually a proxy for simple bad vibes. In other words when the country feels unstable people attribute it to a bad economy, even when their own finances are pretty good.
People are right to be nervous about the economy right now. Inflation is up and Trump’s tariffs and mass layoffs of federal workers/contractors are looming threats. But these results suggest something more I think. And I think it’s the same thing that doomed Harris in November: bad vibes about the rise of chaos, instability and violence in our political culture. And some of the people voted for Trump because of them simply didn’t understand where those bad vibes were actually coming from. It wasn’t the price of eggs.