Former President Donald Trump crushes President Joe Biden on the question of who is most trusted to boost the economy, the top 2024 issue for voters, a Morning Consult poll released Thursday found.
The positive polling for Trump suggests voters remember his thriving economy and that Biden’s so-called plan of “Bidenomics” failed to resonate with or benefit voters.
Trump leads Biden by 18 points on who is most trusted with the economy:
- Donald Trump: 50 percent
- Joe Biden: 32 percent
When pollsters asked voters what “is the single most important issue to you when deciding how to vote in the November 2024 election for U.S. president,” they ranked the economy as the undisputed number one issue:
- The Economy 39 percent
- Immigration 14 percent
- Democracy 10 percent
- Abortion 6 percent
- Social Security & Medicare 6 percent
- Climate Change 5 percent
- Crime 4 percent
- Guns 4 percent
- Other, please specify: 3 percent
- Housing 3 percent
- Healthcare 2 percent
- Israel-Hamas War 2 percent
- Russia-Ukraine War 1 percent
- U.S.-China Relations 1 percent
- Education and Schools 1 percent
- Labor and Unions 0 percent
- Infrastructure 0 percent
The poll sampled 796 registered voters from November 27 – December 6 with a 3-point margin of error.
Several key indicators suggest why voters rate Biden’s handling of the economy at the lowest level since he took office, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.
- Mortgage rates remain above 7 percent, blocking a lot of first-time home buyers.
- Consumer sentiment fell for four straight months.
Despite the data, the Associated Press claimed this week the “U.S. economy is rock solid. But some experts are “mystified” that voters are unhappy with Biden’s economy.
“Things are getting better, and people think things are going to get worse — and that’s the most dangerous piece of this,” said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who has worked with Biden.
“Lake said voters no longer want to just see inflation rates fall — rather, they want an outright decline in prices, something that last happened on a large scale during the Great Depression,” the report concluded.
Follow Wendell Husebø on “X” @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.