A dozen swing voters in Iowa and Georgia — nine of whom voted for Donald Trump in 2024 — sat down for focus groups this week and delivered a verdict that his campaign team should probably not screenshot and share internally. Eight of them said Trump is not focused enough on the economy. One said he's too busy worrying about his 'reflecting pool and his ballroom.' These are his people.
The Anxiety Is Real and It Has a Price Tag
According to NBC News, which observed the focus groups produced by Syracuse University alongside research firms Engagious and Sago, economic fear is the dominant emotion among undecided voters in two of the most contested Senate races heading into the 2026 midterms. Iowa and Georgia. Two states Trump won in 2024. Two states now full of voters who feel like they got played.
"Nothing has gotten better as far as the cost of living, inflation — food is astronomical, gas," said Patty O., a 59-year-old Georgia Republican who voted for Trump. She is not a Democrat. She is not a liberal plant. She is a Trump voter who is furious about her grocery bill and is not being quiet about it.
All but three of the twelve participants said they feel more anxious about the economy today than when Trump took office for his second term. That is a stunning number in a group where three-quarters of the participants voted for the man sitting in the White House right now. They wanted change. They got change. It just cost them more at the checkout line.
The Reflecting Pool That Broke the Camel's Back
The most damning quote of the entire focus group — and there were several contenders — came from Jamie G., a 55-year-old Iowa independent and Trump voter. NBC News reports he described himself as "disillusioned with pretty much everything he's done since he took office."
He did not stop there. "He was going to end conflicts on the first day, which he didn't do. Instead, he's gotten us into needless wars. His tariffs have caused prices — it's been like a tax on things for the American people," Jamie said. Then the kill shot: "He's more worried about his vanity projects, like the reflecting pool and his ballroom, than he is with the real problems in this country."
This is not a man reading talking points from a progressive think tank. This is a Trump voter in Iowa who is doing the math and finding that it does not add up. The tariffs function as a tax. The wars were supposed to be over. The president is renovating things. Meanwhile, food is astronomical.
Eight Out of Twelve. Let That Number Sit.
Overall, eight of the twelve undecided voters in these groups said they disapprove of Trump's job performance during his second term, NBC News reports. Eight. Out of twelve. In a group where nine of them voted for him. You do not need a statistics degree to understand that those numbers represent a significant number of people who pulled a lever for Donald Trump and are now raising their hands to say they regret it.
Rich Thau of Engagious, who moderated the sessions, put it plainly: "Among these undecided voters, pervasive economic anxiety is the animating issue in the midterms — not Iran, not immigration, not Israel/Gaza." The economy. Full stop. All the noise about culture wars and border security and whatever Tucker Carlson is currently worked up about is secondary to the fact that people cannot afford things and they know who is in charge.
Four of the five Iowa panelists said they would support Democrat Rob Sand in the gubernatorial race. In Iowa. A state Trump won. That is not a rounding error. That is a trend.
Biden and Harris Hover on the Sidelines, Awkwardly
While Trump's voters are staging a slow-motion mutiny, the Democratic Party is conducting its own delicate dance around the two people most associated with losing in 2024. NBC News reports that Joe Biden has issued exactly one endorsement this cycle before appearing in an ad for Dan Koh, a former White House official running in a Massachusetts House primary. Democrats have largely treated Biden like a relative who had too much to drink at Thanksgiving — you still love them, but you keep them away from new people.
Kamala Harris has been more active, NBC News notes, but that comes with its own complications. When Harris's PAC sent out a fundraising email in support of Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola, Peltola publicly distanced herself from the former vice president. Harris also recorded a robocall for Jasmine Crockett in the Texas Senate primary. Crockett lost. The party's 2024 hangover is not over. Not remotely.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Ed Markey, 80, over Seth Moulton, 47, in the Massachusetts Senate primary, which is a whole separate story about the direction of the Democratic Party and the peculiar logic of progressive politics. But that is a column for another day.
What the Senate Map Looks Like Right Now
Iowa and Georgia are shaping up as genuine battlegrounds for Senate control, which is why these focus groups matter beyond the entertainment value of watching Trump voters describe his aesthetic hobbies as a dereliction of duty. The Senate math heading into November is tight, and undecided voters in these two states carry real weight.
In Georgia, three of the panelists said they would vote for Republican Rick Jackson in the governor's race. But on the Senate side, these voters remain genuinely up for grabs, NBC News reports. That is the point of the exercise. These are the people campaigns need to win over, and right now they are sitting in a focus group room in August telling researchers that tariffs feel like taxes and the president cares more about ballrooms than their bank accounts.
The Dingo Take
Nine of twelve Trump voters in a focus group are unhappy with Trump. Eight think he is not focused enough on the economy. One compared him unfavorably to a man renovating a house while the neighborhood burns. And this is the base. These are not people CNN found outside a Democratic National Committee office. These are his voters, in his states, saying out loud that the deal they made in November 2024 has not paid off.
The Trump political operation has spent two years telling anyone who would listen that tariffs are popular, that the economy is roaring, that real Americans support the agenda. Here are real Americans, in Iowa and Georgia, saying the tariffs feel like a tax and food is astronomical. Someone is lying, and it is not Patty O. from Georgia.
The midterms are still months away, and a lot can change. But if the Republican Party walks into November with its base voters describing the president's priorities as 'vanity projects,' the red wave they expected is going to look a lot more like a drain slowly circling. The reflecting pool, it turns out, reflects everything.
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