Inflation Is The One Issue For Voters 'That Should Concern Trump': HarrisX Pollster Dritan Nesho

In an interview with Forbes' Brittany Lewis on Wednesday, HarrisX CEO Dritan Nesho spoke about President Trump's polling numbers.

Transcript

00:00I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now is Harris X founder and

00:05CEO Dritan Esho. Dritan, thank you so much for joining me. Great to be back. Thank you for having

00:10me. The July Harvard Caps Harris X poll just was released and there are a lot of good bits in here.

00:18It's very wide ranging and it is a good temperature check of where exactly voters are about six months

00:24into Trump 2.0. So to start off the conversation, what do voters think about Trump? Where is his

00:30approval rating right now? Well, his approval rating has essentially stabilized and is at 47%

00:39approval nowadays. If you remember the last conversation together, he started off in

00:45February with 52% job approval, the highest that Trump ever received during his first term and in

00:53the second term. And there was this slow decline in March, 49% in April, 48% in May, 47% in June,

01:0446%. But he seems to have stabilized it. And it's really multiple stories that are being threaded

01:14together. He's doing well on immigration, for example, and foreign affairs and also

01:23cutting down costs. But obviously voters remain concerned about the economy and especially the

01:30tariffs and trade policy where really the president gets his lowest ratings. So some positives for Trump

01:36and some negatives as well all rolled into one, but he seems to be stable and really where he goes

01:44from here will hinge a lot on the economy. And again, on tariffs and trade, which seem to be looming

01:52once again. It seems like in every one of our conversations, it's the economy stupid. It all

01:59goes back to the economy. And when the economy is doing well, any president is first to claim that

02:05economy as their own. They say, hey, this is my economy. I'm the person who got us here. If the

02:11economy is bad, hey, it's the last guy's fault. I had nothing to do with this. Or they blame outside

02:16factors and they try to distance themselves from that economy. A, we know that the economy was one

02:23of the biggest issues, if not the biggest issue facing voters back in 2024. Do voters right now,

02:28are they happy with the state of the economy? A and B, do they think it's now Trump's economy six months in?

02:34Absolutely. Well, it's clearly Trump's economy. 62% of voters today say that he is mostly responsible and

02:44owns the state of the economy as compared to Joe Biden. Even up to last month, those numbers were a

02:52lot more split, closer to kind of the 50-50 mark. But especially now that the big, beautiful bill has

02:59passed, Trump really owns the economy through and through. The good news for Trump and the Republicans

03:06is that net-net, voters tend to trust them more than Democrats with managing the economy. 50%,

03:15sorry, 53% say that they trust Trump and his administration and the Republicans more than

03:21Democrats in Congress. But it's really a very partisan split. 91% of GOPers, you know,

03:29lean towards the administration and Republicans. 85% of Democrats with Democrats. And then the

03:38coveted independents in the middle are split 50-50. So it shows that he can go in any direction.

03:46Further to that, voters remain divided over the impact of Trump's policies in the first six months,

03:54especially as it relates to the economy and to jobs. When we ask them, are Trump's policies making the U.S.

04:00economy stronger or weaker? That's 51 to 49% stronger to weaker. That's a split. Are Trump's policies leading

04:09to more or less jobs in the country? 49-51. Again, a split. Are Trump's policies leading to more or less

04:16investment in the country? I mean, Trump is doubting trillions of dollars of investment coming in.

04:2251% more, 49% less, and so on and so forth. There is one question, though, that should concern Trump.

04:32When we ask, is Donald Trump winning or losing the battle against inflation? 56% say that he's losing

04:39the battle on inflation. And almost half of all voters rate inflation and affordability as the top

04:49issue that matters the most to them. So again, together with trade and tariffs and his initiatives

04:56on the economy, the success of the Republicans in the midterms and beyond and the success of the

05:02presidency comes down to tabletop issues, bread and butter issues, as you said,

05:08in the opening. So keep a close eye out on that. And obviously, the story is unfolding in real time.