House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) pushed back against polling data giving President Donald Trump high approval, suggesting voters are only “at the beginning” of his second presidential term.
The polling data, recently released by Marquette University, found that a majority of respondents favor numerous executive orders issued by the president, including 63% who favor the government recognizing only two genders, male and female, and 60% who both support deporting illegal immigrants and support the expansion of oil and gas production. In response, Jeffries pointed to the cost of living not yet going down, claiming that Trump has broken a campaign promise to voters.
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“Let me say as it relates to all of those issues, we’re just at the beginning, and the core promise that Donald Trump made is that he’s going to lower costs for everyday Americans,” Jeffries argued on ABC News’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos. “In fact, we were told that grocery prices would go down on day one, on January 20th. Costs aren’t lower. In fact, costs are increasing. The price of eggs is skyrocketing out of control. Inflation is on the way up. That was the core promise that’s been broken.”
On the topic of immigration, Jeffries acknowledged that the United States needs to secure its border, and that the country also needs to fix its “broken” immigration system. However, he added that he and other Democratic lawmakers would protect “dreamers” and “foreign workers” across the nation.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum argued last week that the reason energy prices have yet to go down since Trump’s inauguration is partially due to how the previous administration worked to “shove money out the door” in its final days.
Following the 2024 election, in which Trump beat then-Vice President Kamala Harris in both the popular vote and the Electoral College, Jeffries admitted that both inflation and the economy played an “outsized role” in how people voted.
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“I think it’s definitely clear that the economy, inflation, and to a lesser extent, issues connected to the border played an outsized role in how many voters made their electoral decisions, particularly as it relates to their support for the former president,” Jeffries stated in November.
Jeffries has been considered by some as a possible voice for the Democratic Party in opposing Trump’s agenda for the U.S., with former Minnesota lawmaker and 2024 presidential candidate Dean Phillips calling the House minority leader a “rising star.” However, Jeffires did not provide a direct answer when asked about this, stating that he is honored to be “House Democratic Leader.”
