Angry voters aren’t buying Trump’s 'progressive' bid to woo them back: report

Newsweek reports President Donald Trump is desperately flailing to connect with working-class voters with extravagant new policies that he thinks will speak to middle-income families, but his tactics don’t appear to be connecting.

“According to a CNN/SSRS poll from late March, Trump’s approval among white non-college graduates has dipped into negative territory — with 49 percent supporting and 51 percent disapproving of his presidency,” reports Newsweek. “A separate survey of nearly 2,000 Trump voters found that one in five do not plan to support a Republican candidate in 2028, a departure that the pollsters said was “concentrated among his working-class voters.”

With so many voters souring on him, Trump is now lauding policies that focus on affordability, which “a term he derides,” according to Newsweek.

Last week, Trump signed an executive order aimed at expanding access to retirement savings accounts for those without employer-supported plans, establishing the TrumpIRA.gov website that will direct them to low-cost IRAs, which brings with it a $1,000 matching contribution from the federal government. He’s also lauding his rom “no tax on tips” folded into his signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But neither of these are connecting with the voters he desperately needs to save his party in the midterms.

“These voters are not reading policy briefs or even paying much attention to policy talking points,” political scientist and Vanderbilt University professor Larry Bartels told Newsweek. “They will respond to how their lives feel at the time of the election.”

His other policies, such as his bid to ban mega investors from buying up single-family homes and free up supply, or his “seemingly abandoned” proposal to cap credit card rates also appear to be falling flat with U.S. households.

“I don’t think any of these policies will put a sufficiently big and visible dent in income stagnation or inflation or unemployment to move the needle much,” Bartels said. “President Biden’s economic policies were much bigger and arguably much more consequential for working-class people, but even they could not overcome the price of eggs.”

Trump's disconnect with working-class voters reflects a broader credibility gap. These voters experienced Trump's first term and remember promises about manufacturing jobs, wage growth, and infrastructure investment that didn't materialize as promised.

Many faced real economic hardship during his presidency, from trade war tariffs increasing costs to limited job growth in rural areas. Now, policy announcements alone lack persuasive power when lived experience tells a different story. Additionally, working-class voters are acutely sensitive to gas prices, grocery costs, and rent—immediate financial pressures that overshadow abstract policy proposals like retirement account matching or investor restrictions on home purchases.

The gap between Trump's rhetorical focus on helping working people and the tangible results voters have experienced creates skepticism toward new initiatives, regardless of how they're marketed.

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