Those precious inflationary tariffs
Of all the reasons to loathe Donald Trump, will it be this that does him in?
Here is how the Texas redistricting[1] backfires: “[O]ver a year out from the 2026 elections, there’s an emerging reality operatives say are slapping both parties in the face: President Donald Trump’s approval numbers with Latino voters are souring — and those same voters still don’t trust Democrats.”[2] If you don’t like Republicans and you don’t like Democrats, you either vote third party or you don’t vote at all. But “[t]he Republican-led gambit to redistrict — which is being met with similar efforts across other states and notable retaliation in California — rests on a significant gamble banking on the emerging realignment of many working-class Latino voters toward the GOP.”[3]
It's the economy, stupid, redux: “One of the most striking statistics from Equis’ research shows 56 percent of Latino men now disapprove of Trump — the same coalition that swung for Trump last year. And pocketbook issues rank among the top reasons why. ‘The cost of living was by far Trump’s weakest area,’ Maria di Franco Quiñonez, a research director at Equis, told Playbook. ‘It’s really extended to the Republican Party as a whole.’”[4]
Of course, all of this is based on surveys, which I don’t trust due to abysmal response rates.[5] But I suspect more than a few independent voters are also feeling the singe in their wallets and, for all the reasons we have to loathe Trump, the psychopathy, the raging narcissism, the hatred, the genocide, the cruelty for its own sake, it might be his precious inflationary tariffs that does him in.
And what, we must ask, does that say about us?
[1] Taylor Goldenstein et al., “Texas House passes Trump redistricting plan, setting up showdown with California,” Houston Chronicle, August 20, 2025, https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/texas-house-redistricting-passes-20825656.php
[2] Ali Bianco, “Why neither party can bank on Latino voters,” Politico, August 20, 2025, https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook-pm/2025/08/20/why-neither-party-can-bank-on-latino-voters-00516627
[3] Ali Bianco, “Why neither party can bank on Latino voters,” Politico, August 20, 2025, https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook-pm/2025/08/20/why-neither-party-can-bank-on-latino-voters-00516627
[4] Ali Bianco, “Why neither party can bank on Latino voters,” Politico, August 20, 2025, https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook-pm/2025/08/20/why-neither-party-can-bank-on-latino-voters-00516627
[5] Steven Shepard, “Report: Phone polls aren’t dead yet,” Politico, May 15, 2017, https://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/15/pollsters-phone-polls-238409; Courtney Kennedy and Hannah Hartig, “Response rates in telephone surveys have resumed their decline,” Pew Research Center, February 27, 2019, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/27/response-rates-in-telephone-surveys-have-resumed-their-decline/