Even in the best of years, Americans stagger through this season feeling financially woozy. This year, however, the picture is bleaker. And a growing number of Americans are feeling Grinchy.

Unemployment is at a four-year high, with Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, declaring, “The U.S. economy is in a hiring recession.” And a new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll finds that 70% of Americans say “the cost of living in the area where they live is not very affordable or not affordable at all.”

Is help on the way? Not likely. Affordable Care Act subsidies are expiring, and — despite efforts to force a vote in the House — it’s highly likely that nothing will be done about this before the end of the year. This translates to ballooning health insurance bills for millions of Americans. I will be among those hit with a higher monthly premium, which gives me standing to complain.

President Trump, meanwhile, remains firmly committed to policies that will exacerbate the rising cost of getting by. Trump’s tariffs — unless blocked by the Supreme Court — will continue to raise prices. And when it comes to his immigration crackdown, Trump is apparently unmoved by the tiresome fact that when you “disappear” workers, prices tend to go up.

Taken together, the Trump agenda amounts to an ambitious effort to raise the cost of living without the benefit of improved living standards. But if your money comes from crypto or Wall Street investments, you’re doing better than ever!

For the rest of us, the only good news is this: Unlike every other Trump scandal, most voters actually seem to care about what’s happening to their pocketbooks.

Politico recently found that erstwhile Trump voters backed Democrats in the 2025 governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia for the simple reason that things cost too much.

And Axios reports on a North Carolina focus group in which “11 of the 14 participants, all of whom backed Trump last November, said they now disapprove of his job performance. And 12 of the 14 say they’re more worried about the economy now than they were in January.”

Apparently, inflation is the ultimate reality check — which is horrible news for Republicans.

Trump’s great talent has always been the audacity to employ a “fake it ‘till you make it” con act to project just enough certainty to persuade the rest of us.

His latest (attempted) Jedi mind trick involves claiming prices are “coming down tremendously,” which is not supported by data or the lived experience of anyone who shops.

He also says inflation is “essentially gone,” which is true only if you define “gone” as “slowed its increase.”

Trump may dismiss the affordability crisis as a “hoax” and a “con job,” but voters persist in believing the grocery scanner.

In response, Trump has taken to warning us that falling prices could cause “deflation,” which he now says is even worse than inflation. He’s not wrong about the economic theory, but it hardly seems worth worrying about given that prices are not falling.

Apparently, economic subtlety is something you acquire only after winning the White House.

Naturally, Trump wants to blame Joe Biden, the guy who staggered out of office 11 months ago. And yes, pandemic disruptions and massive stimulus spending helped fuel inflation. But voters elected Trump to fix the problem, which he promised to do “on Day One.”

Lacking tangible results, Trump is reverting to what has always worked for him: the assumption that — if he confidently repeats it enough times — his version of reality will triumph over math.

The difficulty now is that positive thinking doesn’t swipe at the register.

You can lie about the size of your inauguration crowd — no normal person can measure it and nobody cares. But you cannot tell people standing in line at the grocery store that prices are falling when they are actively handing over more money.

Pretending everything is fine goes over even worse when a billionaire president throws Gatsby-themed parties, renovates the Lincoln Bedroom and builds a huge new ballroom at the White House. The optics are horrible, and there’s no doubt they are helping fuel the political backlash.

But the main problem is the main problem.

At the end of the day, the one thing voters really care about is their pocketbooks. No amount of spin or “manifesting” an alternate reality will change that.

The post Who can afford Trump’s economy? Americans are feeling Grinchy appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

His two core promises — which could appear at odds — are to preserve the state’s status as a hub for business and innovation while also lowering California’s cost of living by making corporations pay “their fair share,” he said in a video message.

The nearly two-minute campaign launch film, which intersperses sleek graphics with footage of line cooks, ranchers and manufacturing workers on the job, encapsulates those dueling themes. 

“There’s a reason everybody comes here to start businesses — because this is the place that invents the future,” Steyer says near the start of the video. “I never want to lose that spark.” 

Steyer made his fortune as the founder of Farallon Capital, a hedge fund headquartered in San Francisco that currently manages about $42 billion in assets. After selling his stake in the company in 2012, Steyer started NextGen America, a liberal nonprofit that supports progressive positions on issues such as climate change, immigration, health care and education. The group also launched a labor-aligned super PAC to fund races nationwide.

His activism through NextGen America has elevated Steyer’s profile in recent years from little-known hedge fund manager to global climate activist and Republican antagonizer. He has spent millions to pass progressive ballot measures to uphold California environmental laws, raise taxes on tobacco to fund health care and push states to invest in more renewable energy.

Gov. Gavin Newsom terms out next year. At least six other Democrats are running to replace him, including former Rep. Katie Porter, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. 

While a billionaire former financial executive might be at odds with a party base hungry for a more relatable fighter, he’s attempting to appeal to everyday Californians by spotlighting the issue that most people say is their top priority — affordability. 

“The Californians who make this state run are being run over by the cost of living,” Steyer says later in the video. “Californians deserve a life they can afford.”

Steyer also promises to “launch the largest drive to build homes that you can afford” in state history, rein in monopolistic utilities that have driven up costs and “drop our sky-high energy prices.”

Steyer’s nearly $13 million advertising blitz in support of Proposition 50, the congressional redistricting plan that voters approved earlier this month via special election, led many California political insiders to speculate that he would launch another bid for governor. 

He alluded to his gubernatorial ambitions when he launched a controversial advertisement that, rather than amplify the Yes on Prop. 50 campaign’s message of checking the Trump administration’s power, touted his own calls to impeach and resist President Donald Trump.

The post Billionaire activist Tom Steyer joins race to succeed Newsom as California governor appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.