Ariana Grande vs. Donald Trump: Pop Rhetoric Meets Economic Reality
In the closing moments of the 1980 presidential debate, Ronald Reagan famously delivered a line that would come to define his campaign and reshape political rhetoric: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
Speaking directly to voters, Reagan distilled the nation’s anxieties about inflation, unemployment, and global instability into a simple personal question. It invited Americans to measure Jimmy Carter’s presidency not by policy detail but by lived experience. The phrase proved devastatingly effective, helping Reagan frame the election as a referendum on Carter’s record and setting a template for political challengers ever since.
The latest deployment of Reagan’s test came from pop singer and political commentator Ariana Grande. In an Instagram post, Grande asked:
“i want to check in with trump voters. i have one very genuine question. it’s been 250 days. now that immigrants have been violently torn from their families and communities have been destroyed, now that trans people have been blamed for virtually everything and live in fear, now that free speech is on the brink of collapse for us all ― has your life gotten better? have your groceries gotten cheaper? has your health insurance premium gone down? has your work/life balance improved? can you take a vacation yet? are you happier? has the widespread suffering of others paid off for you in the way he promised it would, or are you still waiting?”
Setting aside her contemptuous and fictional framing regarding the destruction of immigrant communities, “trans people” being blamed for everything, and the near collapse of free speech, her questions are worth exploring. Are Trump voters better off today than they were before Trump took office?
Republican Life Satisfaction Has Soared
Let’s begin by looking at the subjective answers. A YouGov survey of 16,319 adults published on September 14 asked a simple question: “Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?” It found that 37 percent of Republicans say they are “very satisfied.” Another 47 percent are “somewhat satisfied.” That works out to 84 percent being very or somewhat satisfied.
When YouGov asked this question back in 2023, just 18 percent of Republicans said they were very satisfied and 37 percent said they were somewhat satisfied. That gives us 55 percent of Republicans who were satisfied, either very or somewhat. So Republican satisfaction has climbed nearly 30 percentage points.
In the most recent poll, just 10 percent of Republicans said they are “not very satisfied,” and four percent are not at all satisfied. Two years ago, 29 percent were not very satisfied and 17 percent were “very dissatisfied.”
YouGov also polls Americans about how their personal finances have changed over the past year. Two years ago, only 10 percent of Republicans said they were financially better off than a year earlier. This year, 32 percent say they are better off. So, Republicans are now three times more likely to believe that their personal financial situation has improved.
Prices of Vacations, Insurance, and Food—Even Donuts—Are Down Relative to Wages
Grande also asks about specific prices. These are best viewed in light of wages. Since Donald Trump took office, the average weekly wages of what the Department of Labor calls “production and nonsupervisory employees”—government code for working class Americans—is up 1.23 percent. If prices are up by less than that, this means that Americans can afford more and the prices are cheaper relative to wages.
The seasonally adjusted price index for “food at home”—government-speak for groceries—is up 1.06 percent from January through August. So, Americans are better able to afford food than they were when Biden was president.
To take a specific category that is likely close to Grande’s heart, donut prices are up just 0.3 percent compared with a year ago and have declined sharply in both July and August. The government does not report on specific prices of donuts licked by pop singers.
How about vacations? Seasonally adjusted hotel prices are up just 0.66 percent during Trump’s presidency, meaning they also became more affordable relative to wages. Seasonally adjusted airfare prices are down 4.74 percent, making them more affordable.
The price of health insurance is measured in the producer price index. It is up just 0.24 percent from the start of the year, before seasonal adjustments. So, insurance has also gone down relative to wages.
While we do not agree that these benefits have come from the “widespread suffering of others,” it is clear that Republicans and Trump voters have seen their lives improve—as have most working class Americans—along the very axis Grande asked about. We’re glad she’s concerned enough to ask, even if she couldn’t hold back her scorn for those deplorable Trump voters.
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