GOP lawmakers fear Trump is out of sync with voters on the economy

GOP lawmakers fear that President Trump is out of sync with them and many American voters on the economy, the biggest issue of the 2024 midterm elections.

Trump’s refusal to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is the latest troubling sign for GOP senators, who have pressed Trump for weeks to pay more personal attention to voters’ concerns about rising costs.

Instead, Trump’s off-the-cuff statements professing “love” for higher inflation numbers and declaring he’s not thinking about the financial situations of American families while negotiating an end to the conflict with Iran have GOP candidates bracing for a tough election season.

“Living back in the 1970s, I remember I had a car that had about a 12- or 13-gallon gas tank and when the prices went up, I didn’t have the money to fill it up. I was living literally gas tank to gas tank. We got to acknowledge those situations,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said.

“The American people will give you a lot of latitude in fixing a problem that they themselves are experiencing if they feel like you’re empathetic with what they’re dealing with and you have a plan to address it. Those are the two things we have to work on,” he said.

Tillis said the war has distracted Trump from the economy but he said the rest of his administration can help by doing more to communicate how the White House is focused on rising costs.

“They need to make it a priority and stay focused,” he said.  

GOP leaders have urged Trump to run on his economic accomplishments from last year but to little avail.

Instead, Trump is often preoccupied with cracking down on Republicans who defy him and on pushing for Congress to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, which has virtually no chance of becoming law.

Trump shocked Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and other GOP lawmakers last week when he at the last minute cancelled the signing ceremony for a housing affordability bill that passed by huge margins in........

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