by Paul Kane (c) 2025 , The Washington Post
One Latino voter, under 45 years old, described this political moment as “anxious” because President Donald Trump’s tariff policies had gotten “half the world mad at us.” Another woman, over 65 years old, worried that tariffs would spike already high prices and are not “economically a good idea.” And another woman, under 45, does not understand why taking over Canada would help things here at home. “I feel like that could just cause some problems,” she said. And these were views from people who voted for Trump last fall. Voters giving Trump poor grades on the economy is one of the key findings from an intense multi-month study of roughly three dozen voters, overseen by Center Forward, a nonpartisan nonprofit that strives to create more bipartisan conversations among Washington leaders. The group conducted one-on-one exercises with these voters, beginning in the weeks just before the election and then again a few weeks after Trump’s victory, with a third round in late February. These latest interviews came amid a tumultuous moment for the global economy, prompted largely by Trump’s roller-coaster tariff threats. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted from nearly 45,000 on Jan. 30 to almost 41,000 Thursday morning, a more than 8.5 percent decline. J.P. Morgan analysts last week raised their chances of a recession to 40 percent, and even Trump suggested in a recent TV interview that this “period of transition” might prompt a recession. At a Tuesday news conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) defended the president’s economic approach by comparing it to a pool player just hitting the cue ball as hard as possible. “You hit it as hard as you can. This is many people’s strategy in the game. You hit it as hard as you can to break up the balls on the table,” Johnson said. Trump’s problem is that financial markets do not approve of this freewheeling approach. And neither do Americans, judging from new polling from CNN showing Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, 56 percent to 44 percent – including 20 percent of 2024 Trump voters – his lowest tally ever in that poll. That echoes Center Forward’s findings that many Americans prefer a more careful approach. Participants in each session responded to 10 or 11 open-ended questions, usually writing out responses in a personal journal they shared over email. They jotted down their feelings about the state of politics and government; about Trump’s victory and his early governance; and about how Americans feel about one another. In late February, the 35 participants were asked to offer two words to describe how they feel about today’s politics, and “anxious” came up 20 times, followed by nine references to “overwhelmed” and seven saying “disappointed.” Out of 70 possible outcomes, “hopeful” came up just 16 times. The participants regularly vote in general elections but not in party primaries, making them the final pieces of any winning coalition. If these voters switch sides, or simply decline to turn out in the congressional midterms, their actions would help determine who holds the majority on Capitol Hill in two years. The Center Forward sessions serve as a variation on the focus group, when consultants from corporate America and politics gather adults together to hear their views on issues and products. One-to-one questions can eliminate the potential for group think that can come in focus groups. The findings offer more personal, granular examples of how voters want Trump to focus again on the economy. Over several months of talking via email and sometimes video, Center Forward’s bipartisan researchers found that voters see a president who is distracted from the key issue of lowering costs and instead flirting with international conquests that don’t fit their perception of his “America First” brand. “After the election, we saw a wave of economic optimism among Trump supporters, but that optimism is running into the reality that the cost of living remains stubbornly high and change may not be as rapid as expected,” said Robert Jones, a GOP pollster for GS Strategy Group. “What’s striking is that voters from across the political spectrum – Republicans, Democrats and independents alike – are all demanding that the administration tackle inflation and rising living costs. Many feel these kitchen-table issues aren’t getting the attention they deserve,” said Bob Torongo, executive vice president of Breakthrough Campaigns, a Democratic research firm. In the most recent interviews, Center Forward engaged with 35 voters evenly divided across the country. Before the election, 17 said they would vote for Kamala Harris, 11 said they would vote for Trump, and seven were undecided. To be sure, Trump voters are overall optimistic about the direction he is taking, particularly with the Elon Musk-led effort to slash the federal workforce and his tough border policies. But there was a broad sense that the president’s international endeavors – from tariff wars with allies like Canada and Mexico to expansionist rhetoric like demanding Denmark sell Greenland to the United States and wanting to build resorts in war-torn Gaza – have left voters wondering when he would focus on trying to reduce costs. “I feel overwhelmed because of the number of cutbacks and Trump’s attitude toward the citizens of Gaza,” said a White male Trump supporter, who is older than 65 and college educated. “I would just like Trump to focus more on the economy. If the economy is doing good, most people will be happy,” said a Latino Trump supporter, who is younger than 45 and college educated. Trump voters did not regret their votes, nor did undecided or independent voters have any newfound support for Democrats, whose leaders are not viewed positively by this collection of voters. Center Forward also found participants increasingly viewed others through a political lens, leading to either distancing from friends or relatives who support different candidates or just avoiding the topic in any conversation. In the wave of interviews just after Trump’s win, two-thirds of the participants said they changed their behavior ahead of the election by avoiding social media and conversations about the vote. “I do tend not to talk politics or the election with two specific friends,” a young Harris supporter said in November. But participants still expressed a sense that politics hadn’t entirely divided the nation. More than a third of journal writers cited recent tragedies, including the plane-helicopter crash over the Potomac River that left 67 people dead and the wildfires in Los Angeles, contributing to a sense they were “more connected” to people throughout the nation. Another handful said community activities like sports and volunteering create bonds. And almost half of the participants cited changing their views on important issues after talking to someone they trust, such as a professor, sibling or work supervisor. The view from Harris supporters, however, is quite bleak. More than two-thirds of them, in their journal entries, predicted that not a single thing Trump did as president would have a “positive impact” on the nation. “Like I said before, he is destroying this country and democracy,” said a White Midwestern college-educated woman under 45. Most Harris supporters are not surprised by Trump’s comportment as president, and some blame Democrats for their electoral performance last fall. A Latina Harris supporter, also under 45, offered a blunt assessment of Democrats: “I think a lot of the way that they talk can come off as pretentious.” The responses from independent voters should be concerning for Republicans. Two who voted for Trump, for instance, felt optimistic after his victory but more pessimistic by late February. “I think I will feel confident and hopeful,” one Trump voter, a White male older than 65 from the Northeast, said in November. The other Trump supporter, over 65 and from the West, felt similarly: “Our country will be just fine.” Just three months later, both men felt let down so far. “I think our country may be in a worse position. I feel anxious,” the first man said. “I still live paycheck to paycheck. I hope that changes,” the Western older man said. “Everything costs more money, I hope that changes