In the poll results released Wednesday, 54% of respondents said that the country is worse off in January 2026 than it was a year ago, when former President Joe Biden first left office. And 68% said that Trump hasn’t spent enough time addressing economic issues.
During a “Fox & Friends” segment, co-host Ainsley Earhardt expressed “surprise” at the poll and asked Payne—who was once fined by the Securities and Exchange Commission for shady business practices—to explain the negative sentiment in contrast to Trump’s purported economic successes.
“I think the poll really should be ‘Donald Trump’s not spending enough time messaging on the economy,’ that’s because he spent the last year trying to put the pieces in place,” Payne said. “That’s the behind-the-scenes stuff that most folks don’t understand.”
Payne went on to reiterate that the public simply doesn’t understand how “amazing that was” that Trump and congressional Republicans cobbled together the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” which he argued would spark economic growth. The bill kept in place tax breaks for the super wealthy and cut health care coverage for millions.
“This is reigniting the greatness of America,” Payne insisted.
But Fox’s own poll shows that the public doesn’t agree with Payne’s spin, and Democrats were happy to highlight the negative news.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee noted in a press release that the Fox poll shows Trump underwater with independent voters by 60 percentage points on the economy and cited the result as evidence that “the American people are turning on Donald Trump.”
“Donald Trump and House Republicans are losing the American public, and they will lose the House Majority,” said DCCC spokesperson Justin Chermol, highlighting the possible fallout from the poor showing.
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