MESA, Ariz. — Enrique Lopez votes sporadically however purchased into Donald Trump’s vows to battle for on a regular basis employees, serving to the Republican flip Arizona final yr. Then the house development contractor watched how the billionaire president opened his second administration.
“So, the rich control the poor, I guess. They do whatever they want. They get away with it,” Lopez stated after seeing Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, and different tech moguls, notably Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, at Trump’s limited-seating, indoor inauguration.
The 56-year-old Lopez, a resident of the Phoenix exurb of Apache Junction, stated he was additionally struck by the president’s lack of emphasis on housing prices or shopper pursuits: “I didn’t hear anything about helping people out.”
Trump insists his total agenda will assist working- and middle-class Individuals — notably his government orders meant to goose home power manufacturing and, he causes, decrease shopper prices. Days into his return to energy, nevertheless, reactions from some voters spotlight how troublesome it might be for Trump to keep up his populist enchantment alongside his embrace of fellow billionaires in addition to tariffs and different insurance policies that would stoke the very inflation he criticized as a candidate.
In response to AP VoteCast, voters whose whole family revenue in 2023 was beneath $50,000 have been break up between Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, whereas Trump gained greater than half of voters whose whole family revenue was between $50,000 and $99,999 and Harris gained amongst voters whose family revenue was $100,000 or extra. The median annual family revenue within the U.S. is about $81,000. Greater than half of voters with no faculty diploma supported Trump within the 2024 election, whereas the same share of voters with a school diploma supported Harris.
The Related Press spoke to a dozen voters in Arizona about Trump’s inauguration and his first days in workplace. Some middle-class Trump voters say that a lot of what he has performed displays his marketing campaign – particularly his immigration crackdown and the concentrating on of LGBTQ-friendly insurance policies.
“I’m happy about that,” stated Lorrinda Parker, a 65-year-old retired native authorities employee in Arizona, who stated she distrusts each main political events and voted for Trump as a result of she is anxious about medical remedies for trans kids, the financial system and what she described as a “definitely dangerous” U.S.-Mexico border.
But Parker expressed considerations in regards to the firm Trump retains. The political class, she stated, is a “little insular world” the place energy brokers are “not paying attention to the people.”
Billionaires, she stated, may present worthwhile enter as presidential advisers. However she likened the inauguration trio to a “technocracy,” saying they characterize “elitist thinking, ‘We know more because we’re so smart,’” and including her want that Trump hold “a tight leash” on them.
The White Home didn’t instantly reply Tuesday to a request for remark.
U.S. adults broadly assume it’s a dangerous factor if the president depends on billionaires for recommendation about authorities coverage, based on a January AP-NORC ballot. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say this could be a “very” or “somewhat” dangerous factor, whereas solely about 1 in 10 name it a really or considerably good factor, and about 3 in 10 are impartial.
The ballot discovered warning flags particularly for Musk, whom Trump has empowered as chairman of the advisory Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE. In response to the ballot, about one-third of Individuals have a positive view of Musk. That’s down barely from December. Help for the particular fee he’s helming is equally low: Solely about 3 in 10 U.S. adults strongly or considerably approve of Trump’s creation of DOGE. About 4 in 10 disapprove, whereas the remaining have been impartial or didn’t know sufficient to say. (The ballot was performed earlier than Vivek Ramaswamy introduced he would not be concerned within the group.)
Democrats and labor-friendly activists, in the meantime, are pointing to Trump’s embrace of fellow billionaires at his inauguration as they search for a message to impress opposition to the president.
“You can bring those Gilded Age analogies straight to the fore,” stated Maurice Mitchell, who leads the progressive Working Households Celebration. “That image tells the story better than a thousand breathless op-eds. … Once he got the votes and won the election, he’s pivoted in a naked and clear way.”
Mitchell in contrast the scene with Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos with Trump backing off since Election Day on pledges to slash shopper costs instantly and refusing to vow that his tariffs gained’t feed inflation. The president over the weekend reiterated he would push to finish revenue taxes on ideas, a key marketing campaign pledge that some Democrats embraced final yr. Nonetheless, Trump additionally is set to increase 2017 tax cuts tilted to companies and the wealthiest U.S. households, Mitchell famous.
“There can’t be any doubt that Trump 2.0 is a government by, for and with billionaires,” he stated.
Mary Small, who leads the technique and organizing efforts for the progressive group Indivisible, urged Musk appeared “like he was calling the shots” even earlier than the inauguration by pushing Home Republicans to spike a December finances take care of then-President Joe Biden. And he or she famous that Trump appears already to have sided with Musk over rank-in-file “MAGA supporters” together with his assist for H-1B visas for extremely expert immigrants.
“Musk says the quiet part out loud,” Mitchell stated.
However, he added, working-class voters and advocates who’re annoyed can not merely depend on Trump’s or different billionaires’ missteps.
“In some ways, Trump’s and MAGA’s hubris is an advantage,” he stated. “We still need to fill in the other gaps and explain the positive direction we want to take the country.”