‘Affordability’ was the topic du jour of the 2025 election cycle, with socialist New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani riding it all the way to victory.
But it is not just a New York thing. New polling shows the Trump administration is deep underwater on economic issues, and that could prove to be very problematic for Republicans heading into the midterms next year.
Megyn was in Bakersfield, California, for her ‘Megyn Kelly Live’ tour on Thursday where she and Victor Davis Hanson discussed the troubling numbers and how the White House can reframe the narrative on the economy.
The Poll
The latest Fox News national survey conducted between November 14 and November 17 found that 76 percent of registered voters view the national economic conditions negatively, up from the 67 percent who felt that way in July and the 70 percent who said the same at the end of former President Joe Biden’s term.
Majorities of voters who identify as Republican, Democrat, and independent all agree that the cost of groceries, utilities, healthcare, and housing have gone up, and less than 20 percent of people think inflation is completely or mostly under control.
About twice as many respondents said President Donald Trump, rather than Biden, is to blame for the current economy. The Fox News survey found three times as many voters believe Trump’s economic policies have hurt them, which is in line with what they said about Biden’s last year.
All in all, just 15 percent of voters said the Trump administration’s economic policies have “helped,” compared to 46 percent who said they have “hurt” and 39 percent who believe they’ve made “no difference.”
Changing the Narrative
These numbers led Mark Halperin, host of MK Media’s Next Up with Mark Halperin, to predict the 2026 midterm elections could be a bloodbath for the GOP that results in them losing control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, if the administration does not change people’s perception of the economy.
Hanson noted that while Trump’s foreign policy wins have been historic, he said “no president has been reelected on foreign policy.” He pointed to former President George H.W. Bush, who “had that fantastic first Gulf War in 1991” and was “polling at 90 percent” but lost to Bill Clinton in the 1992 election because of the economy, stupid. “We were in a mild recession in ’92, but [Clinton] said it was the Great Depression,” Hanson recalled.
So, what lessons can the Trump team learn from that? Hanson said it’s about regaining control of the narrative.
“Over four years, Joe Biden averaged 5.2 percent inflation. When Trump came in, it was 3.0. This month, it was 3.0. They think the economy may grow at 4 percent GDP; he came in at 2 percent,” Hanson explained. “But what the left is saying is, ‘We were in power for four years, and we raised prices by 21.5 percent. You’ve been in office 10 months, and you haven’t reduced them. It’s your fault.’ And he can’t get that message out.”
Hanson believes Trump would benefit from reminding everybody what he did in his first term to boost the economy and what he is doing right now that will have long-term benefits. “We’ve never pumped more than 14 million [barrels of oil]. He’s going to go to 16 [million]… We are the largest natural gas and oil producer in the world,” he said. “Second, I don’t know if he’s Art of the Deal exaggerating when he says he has $20 trillion in foreign investment. Let’s say it’s half that. In the last year of Biden, he had $79 billion. So, we’ve never had that before.”
“And then he’s going to have this continuation of the ‘big, beautiful tax cut’ and the deregulation. You deregulate the economy, you give tax cuts, you’ve got all of this… oil revenue and the export, and… the tariff income [things improve],” he added. “Gas and energy prices are already going down. They were $3.48 a gallon during the four years of Biden. They’re already at $2.98… nationwide.”
All of this is to say, the president has and should continue to have a positive story to tell. “So what I’m getting at is, if he can survive and get that message out, you’re going to have a lot of psychological lift with the World Cup and the 250th anniversary. It’s going to be a nice year,” Hanson concluded. “And I think these things will kick in in June or July, and he’ll be fine – if they stick to the message. And that is: The economy was terrible when we came in. We made it better, and now it’s getting good.”
You can check out the full ‘Megyn Kelly Live’ show from Bakersfield, CA, on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch Megyn live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.