Election of Donald Trump: and in the end, it is purchasing power that wins

Published on November 8, 2024 at 1:03 p.m. / Modified on November 8, 2024 at 1:53 p.m.

“Make Economy Great Again.” This is a slogan that Donald Trump could have surfed on, as his campaign focused, in addition to immigration, on the Americans’ wallets. He thus highlighted what he claims to be the blessed time of his mandate, during which gasoline cost nothing, rents were affordable and filling your shopping cart was not an existential anguish, to summarize very schematically. his campaign remarks. The Republican candidate is not wrong when he asserts that the cost of living was generally lower under his presidency, from 2016 to 2020. It is rather his successor who inherited an unfavorable economic situation. The end of the Republican’s mandate was marked by covid, leaving a bloodless economy for Joe Biden, who had to battle for four years with one of the highest inflation rates in the modern history of the country. In June 2022, the price increase reached its maximum, 9.1%, light years from the average of 1.9% under Donald Trump.

Thus, the billionaire’s refrain, rhetorically asking Americans if they felt better economically with him in charge, was particularly effective. Especially in the face of an electorate that has placed its purchasing power as its main concern. It was thus at the top of the 22 concerns listed in a Gallup poll at the beginning of October 2024, even being “the only subject on which a majority of voters, 52%, declare that the positions of the candidates on this subject have an “extremely important” influence. on their vote. An observation that was verified at the polls: 79% of voters who placed purchasing power as their primary concern voted for Donald Trump.

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