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With Trump’s focus elsewhere, the economy shows signs of trouble

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One Trump voter told NBC News that while she believes Trump “deep down” wants to boost the economy, “he is busy out of the country” and focused on “demolishing the White House.”

For Hannah Szretter, the government shutdown is more than just a political fight.

The 26-year-old Buffalo-area resident said she has had Type 1 diabetes since she was 10 and also now has a mental health disorder that prevents her from working. The $300 she receives each month in food assistance from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has been a needed lifeline to make sure she is able to maintain her blood sugar level.

“I need these benefits for my food. If I don’t get the food, I won’t be able to control my numbers,” she told NBC News. “If you don’t get it taken care of, you can lose toes or limbs, or could go blind.”

Now she is among the more than 40 million people who may not receive their November SNAP benefits as the government shutdown goes into its sixth week with no end in sight.

“It’s scary,” she said.

Trump’s attention, however, was elsewhere, this weekend. Just hours before these food assistance benefits were set to lapse, President Donald Trump hosted a lavish “Great Gatsby”-themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago, with the theme: “A little party never killed nobody.” And on Friday, he posted dozens of photos on social media about his fancy renovation of the Lincoln bathroom in the White House.

Along with the loss of SNAP benefits and the disruption of other social service programs for millions of people, the government shutdown has resulted in federal employees going without pay. Many of them have turned to food banks and unemployment benefits to get by.

Hannah’s mom, Betty, a 63-year-old recent retiree who is a caretaker for her daughter and a longtime Trump supporter, said she is losing confidence in the president she once supported amid the shutdown fight.

“I think deep down he wants to help the country with things like food insecurity,” she said. “But now he is busy out of the country and demolishing the White House. I know that is being paid for with private funds, but those could be used to help people.”

“It all seems very selfish,” she added.

Betty Szretter said she now regrets voting for Trump in 2024 and would prefer a Democrat in the White House to “protect benefits he [Trump] wants to cut.”

The shutdown is compounding problems that have intensified broader anxiety over an economy that in recent months has been marked by lingering high prices for many consumer goods, rough jobs numbers, mass layoffs at major companies — including Amazon and Target — and an uptick in inflation.

That stagnation has in recent months eroded the high approval marks President Donald Trump once enjoyed on the economy.

The bleak picture has some Republicans sounding the alarm to the White House — even though delivering the news isn’t easy.

“No one wants to tell the president he’s losing on the economy,” said a Republican strategist who said they recently warned the White House about their concerns.

Trump’s overall approval rating sits at 43%, while just 34% of registered voters say he has “lived up” to expectations on the economy, 33% say he has “looked out for the middle class” and 30% say he met expectations on inflation, according to a new NBC News poll released Sunday.

A White House official blamed Democrats for the prolonged shutdown and argued that some indicators, like growing wages and a booming stock market, are proof the economy has bright spots. The person also argued that the massive tax cuts and tariffs pursued by Trump are going to take time to fully take effect.

“I don’t think anyone is under any illusions that things are perfect … but looking at the data, we feel good about the trajectory here,” said the White House official, who, like others in this article, was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

“The bottom line is that the actual buying power and actual purchasing power of American consumers is going up, and, as far as specific prices go, you know there are things like gas and eggs that have gone down,” the official said. They also asserted that Trump’s pursuit of investment in the U.S. will pay major dividends in the future for American workers and consumers.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican and Trump ally, said in an interview with NBC News that he remains optimistic about the economy.

“The state of the economy is very strong, if you look at real wages that continue to go up,” Moreno said. “The Working Families Tax Cut Act worked really well. … The big thing is, obviously, the Democrats don’t want the economy to be successful, which is decently sad considering they should be cheering for the American people. But they shut down the government because they want Trump to fail.”

Republicans are pushing for the passage of a “continuing resolution,” which would extend current funding levels until Nov. 21. Democrats, meanwhile, want to include an extension of tax credits that help people buy private insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Those credits expire at the end of the year, and without the extension, millions of people who receive them are likely to see steep premium increases. Republicans have argued the health care fight should be handled separately, after the government reopens.

For his part, Trump for weeks has largely been focused on issues aside from the shutdown and economic concerns, with the exception of deals around his tariffs. Democrats have called on him to become more engaged to help end the stalemate.

On Tuesday night, Trump did write on social media that Senate Republicans should use the “nuclear option” to get rid of the filibuster. The drastic move would allow Republicans to reopen the government without needing 60 votes — and the cooperation of Democrats — but it was swiftly rejected by Republican leaders.

Last week, Trump’s attention was in Asia, far from the pain of the shutdown, with a big announcement on tariffs. Before that, much of his focus was on demolishing the East Wing of the White House to build a $300 million ballroom funded by private donors, a project that is ongoing.

And on Thursday, a reporter asked Vice President JD Vance about the loss of SNAP benefits, and whether the administration was working to find a funding solution, as it has tried to do to pay troops and law enforcement during the shutdown.

Vance avoided answering whether there would be a push around SNAP, instead blaming Democrats.

“The unfortunate reality — and we’re starting to see this with our aviation industry — we’re going to find out the hard way with SNAP benefits, the American people are already suffering, and the suffering is going to get a lot worse,” Vance said.

Some relief could be coming — but if it does, it’s over the Trump administration’s objections. On Friday, a federal judge ordered the administration to distribute money to SNAP recipients “as soon as possible” by tapping a contingency fund. Another federal judge in a separate case also said it was unlawful for the administration not to pay out the benefits.

The White House has argued that it cannot use those funds and is seeking further clarification from the courts.

Several recent public polls have pointed to Trump having an economic problem, one that is quickly turning into a political one for Republicans trying to maintain slim majorities in the House and Senate headed into the 2026 midterms — an election where Republicans will have to energize Trump voters without his presence on the ballot.

The new NBC News poll found Republicans have just a 1-point advantage over Democrats on “dealing with the economy,” a margin that has consistently been 15-20 points in favor of Republicans going back to 2018.

Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist who advised freshman Sen. Ruben Gallego’s winning campaign in Arizona last year, said that economic hardship gives his party’s candidates an opening to win key segments of the electorate — including the young men who helped Trump take back the White House — if they focus on making the argument that their policies are better than the president’s.

“Right now, people’s prices are going up. Their prices are going up for the utility bills, going up for lots of things in their life, because of the tariffs,” Rocha said. “If you show up and start talking to folks about actually trying to provide for their family, there’s going to be a lot of men who right now feel a little regret because they were promised lower prices and they’re not getting them.”

Moreno said he was not worried “about the politics” of the shutdown, noting that he has pledged to serve no more than two Senate terms and, as a native of Colombia, is constitutionally ineligible to be president. But he said Republicans need to better articulate their message: that they hold Democrats responsible for the shutdown and its economic ramifications.

He specifically alluded to recent remarks from House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., who in an interview with Fox News acknowledged that families would “suffer” because of the shutdown but emphasized that Democrats needed to exert their political “leverage” to address health care costs.

“We’ve got to speak up more loudly and more aggressively, like [Senate Majority Leader] John Thune did the other day. I think we haven’t shown enough outrage. We do it privately, but we haven’t done it enough publicly. Just call these guys out. It’s disgusting,” Moreno said.

“We need to speak clearly, with humanity, not political talk,” he added.

Trump remains popular with Republicans on things like immigration enforcement — Betty Szretter says she still supports the president on that issue — but pocketbook issues more often than not have an outsize role in swaying election outcomes.

The NBC News poll found 83% of registered voters said the “cost of living” was their single most important issue or very important to them, a number that was at 58% when they were asked about “immigration and border security.”

On the Asia trip last week, Trump nevertheless told reporters he had the “highest [poll] numbers I ever had.”

He has also directly avoided questions about the economy.

“Let’s just make it about this subject,” Trump said at an event centered around an autism announcement last month. “I’d rather not talk about some nonsense on the economy. I will say this: The economy is unbelievable.”

Republicans running in swing House seats across the country, however, have not been eager to talk about Trump’s economy.

NBC News reached out to eight Republicans either defending swing seats they currently hold or challenging Democrats in winnable seats; seven did not return requests seeking comment.

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