NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with political consultant Sarah Longwell about Trump's low approval rating and high gas prices, as affordability shadows the approaching midterm election. Political strategist Sarah Longwell joins us once again. She publishes the website The Bulwark and is author of the forthcoming book "How To Eat An Elephant: One Voter At A Time." Sarah, interesting title.
INSKEEP: We just heard Franco say that Americans do seem to hold Trump responsible for high prices - that they're getting frustrated, even people in his base - but how does that reflect what you hear directly from voters? LONGWELL: When I listen to voters, they absolutely blame Trump for this, and there's two reasons. One is voters know that Trump instituted the tariffs, that that was a pet project of his.
There's no way to push the tariffs onto Joe Biden. And then the second is that because Donald Trump didn't ask Congress, didn't go to the American people and try to convince them that the war in Iran was a good idea, they know it was unilaterally his. And so there is no pushing the blame off to Joe Biden on this one.
Trump owns both those things, and both of those issues are things voters connect directly to higher prices. INSKEEP: And when you're listening to people in focus groups - I guess my next question. So they express this frustration, they understand how it works, they identify Trump as the cause of some of their problems, but is that the voting - the decisive voting issue for a lot of people?
LONGWELL: Without a doubt. You know, we open every focus group with the same question, and I've done hundreds and hundreds. And we say, how do you think things are going in the country?
And right now, even Trump voters say they're not going well, and then they organically bring up, things are too expensive, gas is too expensive and the war in Iran is a disaster. Voters are actively upset at Donald Trump over the war in Iran. They expected - and they think he expected - that it was going to be sort of another Venezuela where, you know, you go in, you go out.
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