Trump may become the face of economic discontent, a year after such worries helped him win big

"We learned a lot." Trump acknowledged on Wednesday. He later posted online that, "Affordability is our goal."

That followed voters in the Virginia and New Jersey governor races, the New York City mayoral contest and the California ballot proposition all citing economic concerns as the top issue. Democrats swept those elections, and it was difficult to point to any major race, anywhere, where Republicans had a key victory.

The reversal of fortune from a year ago was stark.

Back then, voters returned Trump to the White House on the promise that he could quickly bring down inflation, jump-start factory hiring and shower the country in newfound wealth from steep tariffs he imposed on U.S. allies the world over.

Instead, voters now are expressing concerns that high prices for groceries, electricity bills and housing are draining their bank accounts. Trump has been defiant in insisting that he's strengthened the economy, so — his early reactions aside — it's not clear he'll internalize the need to take on the same inflationary challenges that became a drag for his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.

The elections were largely in areas that have recently favored Democrats, so there are limits to interpreting what the results could mean for next year's broader midterm races. But the size of Democratic margins indicated the degree of frustration with economic conditions under Trump.

'People have 401(k)s'

There are few signs that the public is putting much confidence in Trump's claims about an American "golden age," nor his assertion that inflation has been tamped down into submission. Recently pressed on Americans still worried about high grocery prices, Trump pointed to the stock market.

"Look, 401(k)s. People have 401(k)s," the president said in an interview with CBS News' "60 Minutes" that was broadcast on Sunday. Trump said grocery prices are falling, but the most recent inflation report shows they're up 2.7% from a year ago.

Overall consumer prices have risen 3% over the past 12 months, which is higher than the rate going into Trump's 2024 election win. The Federal Reserve targets inflation at 2%.

A top Trump political aide told Politico on Wednesday that the election showed the importance of focusing on the cost of living. "Why does Zohran Mamdani do so well last night? He relentlessly focused on affordability," James Blair said in the interview, adding that Trump planned to focus on prices in his messaging, too.

While the stock market is surging and life looks good for tech executives with artificial intelligence investments, hiring slowed sharply this summer in the wake of Trump rolling out his tariffs.

The AP Voter Poll showed that anxiety about the economy helped the Democrats on Tuesday.

Roughly half of Virginia voters said "the economy" was the top issue, and about 6 in 10 of these voters picked Democrat Abigail Spanberger for governor, powering her to a decisive win.

In New Jersey, Democrat Mikie Sherrill won about two-thirds of voters who called "the economy" the top issue facing the state. Republican Jack Ciattarelli secured about 6 in 10 New Jersey voters who said the top issue was "taxes."

More than half of New York City voters said the cost of living was the top issue facing the city, and Democrat Zohran Mamdani won about two-thirds of this group.

Slightly fewer than half of California voters said "the economy" was the top issue facing the state, and roughly two-thirds of those voters backed Prop 50. The measure's approval allows Democrats to redraw congressional maps more favorable to their party in the nation's largest state and keep up with Republicans who have moved to add potential new red House seats in Texas and elsewhere.

'I don't think it was good for Republicans'

In the run-up to Tuesday's elections, Trump focused his messaging on mass deportations of immigrants in the country illegally and a push to reduce crime by deploying National Guard troops to cities with Democratic leadership. But the AP Voter Poll found that few of those casting their ballots considered crime or immigration a top priority.

Trump did not actively campaign for his party ahead of Election Day 2025. With votes still being counted, he was already ducking blame, posting that he "WASN'T ON THE BALLOT."

The morning after, while hosting Senate Republicans at the White House, Trump was more reflective. "Last night, it was not expected to be a victory," he said.

"I don't think it was good for Republicans," Trump said. "I'm not sure it was good for anybody, but we had an interesting evening, and we learned a lot."

Later in Florida, Trump laid out his economic successes for an audience of business leaders and athletes, saying, "We have the greatest economy right now. A lot of people don't see that."

He suggested his supporters simply needed to talk more about favorable economic statistics and voters would see the economy as improving. That strategy is similar to what the Biden administration deployed without ever turning around public sentiment.

"It's really easy to win elections when you talk about the facts," Trump said.

Instead of offering new ideas, however, Trump hit the familiar themes of combating crime, opposing transgender rights and imposing tough immigration policies in his Miami speech. He even added, "We lost a little bit of sovereignty last night in New York" because of Mamdani's victory.

Reprising his political greatest hits despite Tuesday's results wasn't consistent with what Vice President JD Vance suggested might be coming post-election. "We're going to keep on working to make a decent life affordable in this country, and that's the metric by which we'll ultimately be judged in 2026 and beyond," Vance posted on X.

Offering similar — and so far largely unheeded — advice to his own party was Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential candidate and Trump ally now running for Ohio governor in 2026.

"Our side needs to focus on affordability," Ramaswamy said in a video posted online. "Make the American dream affordable. Bring down costs, electric costs, grocery costs, health care costs and housing costs. And lay out how we're going to do it."