Foreign policy rarely decides a US midterm election. Voters usually vote on their wallets. This time, according to a Reuters analysis published on Saturday, the two have merged: President Donald Trump’s war with Iran and his sweeping tariff campaign are pushing up costs for Americans, and voters are drawing the line straight to the ballot box.
The analysis points to a Reuters/Ipsos poll from earlier this month in which about 78 percent of Americans blamed Trump’s policies for prices rising faster than their earnings. Gas prices and grocery bills feature heavily in that frustration, and the piece notes that no president’s handling of world events has loomed this large over a midterm since George W. Bush’s Republicans lost both chambers in 2006 during the Iraq war.
Christopher Preble, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington, told Reuters: “The bottom line is people are experiencing the impact of Trump’s war and other policies. Now voters have a chance to register their discontent with how he’s dealing with all this.”
The White House pushed back. Spokesman Matt Middleton said Trump has always been clear about temporary market disruptions from the conflict in Iran, and said the contrast between Trump’s economic record and the Democrats’ alternative is clear.
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs found in its latest nationwide survey that most Americans believe the administration’s foreign policy actions have hurt the country’s global standing and household economic conditions. With the November 3 elections approaching, Democrats are widely projected to gain control of the House, with the Senate also seen as increasingly in play.
Source: Reuters
