Pollster Frank Luntz said on Wednesday that it is unprecedented that President Donald Trump’s supporters are not abandoning him even as they experience financial hardship.
After Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on roughly 90 countries on April 2, the stock market plunged for two days, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average experiencing its steepest drop on April 4 since June 2020. Luntz, on “Squawk Box,” said he was shocked that Trump voters — despite admitting their wealth has taken a hit — still remain resolute in their support for the president. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: White House Says Trump Would Veto Effort To Eliminate ‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs)
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“I’ve been mocked for saying I’m surprised about this, but I’m surprised about this: that Trump voters, who acknowledge that they’re worth less today than they were on Election Day, that the 401(k)s they depend on for their future has been hurt, has been damaged and yet they stand behind him,” Luntz told host Andrew Ross Sorkin. “They’ll make excuses that the markets were overbought. They’ll make excuses that we need to level set.”
“They’re willing to accept personal pain for them to get a readjustment of the relationship between the U.S. and China, a readjustment of the relationship between the U.S. and the rest of the world,” the pollster continued. “They’ll take personal pain to get that readjustment. And Andrew, I’ve never seen this before because usually when you’re hurt economically, that changes your perspective and your politics. Not with these people. They’re staying firm.”
Trump voters in Ada, Michigan, also expressed enthusiasm about the president’s administration in a Tuesday MSNBC segment based on the first 100 days of his second term, with one man specifically sharing how he felt about the economic “pain” tariffs have caused.
“I’m really very optimistic, and I know that right now with the tariffs that there’s a little bit of pain,” the male Trump voter told NBC News correspondent Shaquille Brewster. “Things are happening right now that right now aren’t — we’re not in a good place.”
Brewster asked the voter whether he was okay with the “pain” temporarily.
“Well, I don’t think I’m an instant gratification person,” the voter replied. “I think that sometimes you have to go through a little bit of the fire to get to the end of the rainbow.”
Several recent polls have shown dissatisfaction among many Americans with Trump’s management of the economy thus far despite the president making economic progress on increasing jobs and lowering inflation in March.
However, the U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at a rate of 0.3% in the first quarter of 2025, according to statistics published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) on Wednesday.
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