The 2026 midterms and the ongoing battle over media narratives, reality and perception are more specific than the age-old phrase "it's the economy, stupid" – pollsters say it all comes down to "affordability," they told Newsmax on Tuesday night.
"It is by far and away the number one issue – nothing else is even close, not crime, not immigration, and not even healthcare – affordability is the issue," pollster John Zogby said in a joint interview with President Trump campaign pollster John McLaughlin. "The president is addressing it.
"But as Henry Kissinger once said, the perception of reality is often much more important than the reality itself."
Zogby said the media is sharply criticizing Trump for focusing on Venezuela, Greenland, and ending foreign wars – and the American people are buying what the media is selling.
"The president is talking Venezuela, which is not playing well with the American public, and there's genuine insecurity about that – talking about Greenland, which really the American people oppose, not only boots on the ground, but the notion of a takeover of Greenland," Zogby said, referring to them as "side issues that are being generated."
Even Minnesota and ICE operations are unpopular, despite the border being a top issue in the 2024 presidential election.
"You know, importantly, in Minnesota, that played very badly thus far for the administration in terms of the polls," Zogby added, issuing a warning to midterm polling and elections. "If the president is going to be off message and the message is affordability, if he's going to be off message, it's tough.
"It's going to be a tough one."
Zogby said McLaughlin is more of the campaign messaging expert among pollsters and is prepared to challenge what he described as biased media coverage and polling on affordability.
"The bottom line is, right now, you've got a lot of fake media and a lot of fake polls out there," McLaughlin warned, pointing to an Economist/YouGov that "has only 34% Trump voters in it, and it's got 46% Harris voters." "The polls are being skewed to hurt us again.
"And the bad part is left-of-center media. If they watch left-of-center media, they disapprove of the president 55%-43%.
"In our last national poll, the right of center media, they approved 74%-25%.
"And the three in 10 voters who don't pay attention to daily media, they disapprove 56%-36%, which is why you're seeing what John's talking about: That independent voters and voters who don't watch Newsmax and Fox and these other right of center channels, they're not getting the truth."
Americans watching left of center media actually believe the anti-Trump narratives, McLaughlin continued.
"We found they thought the economy was getting worse, 37%-56%, but if they heard that the economy is growing, taxes have been cut, wages inflation is down, all of a sudden they say that the economy is getting better 62%-33%," he said.
"The campaign did a great job getting facts" in the 2024 election, but "the White House needs to do the same thing, and they will."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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