A little more than a year after the President Donald Trump promised that the US was entering a “golden age”, Americans are expressing unprecedented pessimism about the state of the economy.
Gallup on Tuesday releasing a poll showing that 55% of Americans say their personal finances are getting worse, a record high over the past 25 years of data.
By comparison, 49% of Americans said their finances were getting worse at the start of the Great Recession in 2008, while 50% reported their finances were getting worse at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and at the height of the post-pandemic inflation crisis in 2023.
“Affordability continues to be the top financial challenge for American households, with concerns about miscellaneous costs far outpacing other financial concerns,” Gallup wrote. “Combined with the continued effects of sustained inflation during and after the pandemic, Americans’ financial perceptions and outlook remain cautious.”
The survey was conducted between April 1 and April 15, and the financial pressures Americans face have only increased in the two weeks since.
Brent crude oil price oil the futures contract, which was $95 a barrel on April 15, has been since then with spikes to more than $111 per barrel. Likewise, the average price of gas in the last week has increased from $4.02 per gallon to $4.17 per gallon, according to data collected by AAA.
The cost of oil increased starting in March after the President Donald Trump launched an illegal war of choice with Iran, which responded by closing the Strait of Hormuz to most commercial shipping.
The war has also led to fertilizer shortages during the planting season, leading some experts to ANNOUNCE of a global food crisis if the strait is not opened in the very near future. The potential food crisis could be further exacerbated by what scientists are saying designing it will be a “super El Niño,” a global climate phenomenon that would result in lower than average rainfall.
Taxpayers’ $400 Million White House Ballroom Purchase Won’t Help
At the same time, a group of Republican lawmakers, LED from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), on Tuesday called for American taxpayers to foot the bill for Trump’s planned $400 million luxury ballroom.
Hours after Graham unveiled his plan to fund the ballroom with taxpayer money, Rep. Riley Moore (RW.Va.) appeared on Fox Business to beat the drum on building the ballroom.
“You would think this city would be tired of Donald Trump being right all the time,” Moore said in response to critics of the project. “This president has always had the ability to look around and make decisions that are best for his country or his business. We need to have that ballroom built. God bless the president for doing that.”
Sarah Longwell, a former Republican pollster who left the party because of her distaste for Trump, pointed to polling averages compiled by data analyst Nate Silver showing that nearly 69% of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of the cost of living and suggested the push for the ballroom was wildly out of touch with Americans’ concerns.
“You know what’s going to bring those numbers back? A taxpayer-funded ballroom,” she has written sarcastically.
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) held a press conference late Monday to DECLARE their intention to fast-track a bill on the Senate floor to use public funds to pay for the construction of a secure lobby, joining Trump in insisting that the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner on Saturday proved the project is a national security priority.
Trump has been pushing for construction of the ballroom for months, ordering demolition work to begin last year after he insisted the project would be paid for entirely by private donations from companies with government contracts such as Amazon, Lockheed Martin and Google – a plan that has raised the alarm about significant conflicts of interest.
Construction was recently halted after a federal court order rule the project must be approved by Congress, but an appeals court this month is allowed the building to continue until it reviews the decision.
Monday evening, US Department of Justice also deposited a motion — which observers noted appeared to be written in the same style the president often uses in his social media posts — asking U.S. District Judge Richard Leon to throw out his earlier order blocking the project.
The motion started by claiming that the name of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the nonprofit that sued over the construction of the balloon hall, is “FALSE.”
“They suffer from Trump Disorder Syndrome, commonly referred to as TDS,” the filing states.
Graham said Monday that the balloon hall should be paid for with $400 million in taxpayer funds collected in the form of national park fees and tolls, with private funding secured by Trump going toward additional costs like the movie theater.
The senator insisted the American public, to whom aPPROVAL of the president stood at 40% in a monthly poll in March, would support the bill.
“If you don’t think $400 million of taxpayer money is a good investment to create a secure structure in the White House, then I don’t agree. I bet 90% of Americans would like to have a better structure,” Graham said.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal he answered: “No. Ninety percent of Americans would like to be affordable health carehousing and childcare. Or lower gas prices. Or lower food prices. Not an illegally built ballroom.”
Graham explained that underneath the ballroom would be “a lot of military stuff” and “infrastructure centered on national security,” and suggested that building the facility would allow Trump and future presidents to stay on the White House grounds instead of leaving for public events.
WHCA held its annual dinner at Washington Hilton for decades, and it is unclear whether he would ever change the venue to the White House in order to hold the event in a “safe” room.
The press conference came two days after a man armed with multiple guns and knives tried to enter the WHCA dinner and exchanged gunfire with Secret Service personnel before being attacked and disarmed. Just hours after being evacuated from the chaotic scene, Trump held one press conference with senior officials of his administration and declared that the incident had proved that “we need the ballroom”.
