Trump's voters elected him to change the economic situation

"It's about the economy, stupid," the slogan coined by political strategist James Carville during Bill Clinton's successful 1992 presidential campaign, still rings true more than 30 years later, according to a statista.com analysis that notes that this slogan pretty well reflects why Democrat Kamala Harris lost the recent US presidential election.

According to exit polls, frustration with the state of the US economy, even more than immigration, was the main reason behind Donald Trump's return to power. NEP polls published by NBC News show that 32 percent of voters surveyed in 10 key states chose the economy as the issue that mattered most in their vote decision. Of those, 80 percent voted for Donald Trump giving him a bigger lead on the key issue, compared to 74 percent who chose Democratic candidate Harris primarily on abortion issues.

During his short campaign, Harris apparently failed to distance himself from the Biden administration's economic record, which left many Americans worse off than they were four years ago at the end of his previous term. Trump. And while it could be argued that Biden steered the economy through the inflation crisis with as little damage as possible, given that it was driven in part by factors beyond his control, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine or disruptions in the global chain of supply, Harris' campaign failed to change the largely negative sentiment of voters.

According to the cited source, 46 percent of voters said their family is worse off now compared to four years ago, which is an even higher share than in 2008, at the height of the financial crisis. At the same time, 81% of these Americans voted for Trump, which suggests that Harris was perceived as the "same" candidate as Biden, while Trump promised change. Despite the fact that the economy has a fairly good dynamic "on paper" - constant GDP growth, low unemployment, high stock prices -, Americans are very disappointed after three years of high inflation. Thus, 68% of voters described the state of the economy as "not very good" or "bad", while only 31% said it was "good" or "excellent".

We remind you that, last week, the US central bank (Federal Reserve - Fed) reduced the reference interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to a range between 4.50% and 4.75%, as expected by analysts. At the end of the monetary policy meeting, Fed management stated: "Economic activity continued to expand at a solid pace. The conditions on the labor market have eased, in general, and the risks to the labor market and inflation are approximately in balance".

Last month, the US Labor Department announced that the US economy maintained its solid pace of growth in the third quarter of 2024, with lower inflation and wage increases boosting consumer spending. According to official data, the US economy grew at an annual rate of 2.8% in July-September 2024, after an advance of 3% in the second quarter of 2024. Analysts had expected a growth of 3% in the third quarter of this year .