LEILA FADEL, HOST:
For more on Trump's messaging on the economy, we're joined by Republican strategist Brendan Buck. He's a partner at the consulting firm Seven Letter. Before that, he served as press secretary to House Speaker John Boehner and later advised House Speaker Paul Ryan. And we'll note he's working now on a coalition that's trying to get Affordable Care Act tax credits extended. Good morning and welcome to the program.
BRENDAN BUCK: Hi, Leila.
FADEL: So I want to start with what we just heard. There are voters sending a message this week that President Trump is not delivering on promises of affordability.
BUCK: It's hard to argue otherwise. As the pollster just said, yeah, the economy is always No. 1. I think what's interesting about this is Donald Trump has had bad numbers for quite a while, and we just haven't had any event that really forced anyone to confront that. And I think that's what happened here. In some ways, our politics are really complicated. In some ways they're pretty simple. Our voters tend to swing back and forth.
When they have an incumbent who they don't think is getting the job done, they're going to send a message to them at the polls. I think that's what happened Tuesday. And it is absolutely a wake-up call, it should be, for Republicans and certainly the president, who seems to want to distance himself from it. But this is very squarely, I think, on Donald Trump. And his numbers were reflected in what happened this week.
FADEL: Let me ask you about that 'cause we heard the president there say it's a messaging problem. So is it a messaging problem? Or is it about what is being done or not being done?
BUCK: Well, I think it can be both. I mean, ironically, he's starting to sound a little bit like Joe Biden, which is, don't believe your own finances. Believe me when I tell you everything is fine. And that's a really hard sell. And he's not the first president to try to do that. But if you're not actually lowering people's prices, or at least holding them down, eventually that's going to catch up to you. You can only tell people something so long before their own reality disputes it.
Now, there are potentially ways to address this substantively. And we just had a Supreme Court hearing this week. Maybe that can be an off-ramp. If these tariffs that he's been putting in place get struck down, maybe he can back away from that and do something to tangibly lower prices, because I think ultimately what the economy is doing is going to be much more important than what he says about it.
FADEL: Let me ask, though - you know, we heard from the administration that, you know, it's being overblown, that stuff is being taken - there's too much being taken from Tuesday's vote. Do you agree with that?
BUCK: Well, I would say that there's still a long time until the election, but I think that there are really clear warning signs. And look, you have to tend to your politics a little more than I think the administration and Republicans broadly have been doing. Look, if you have an election in Virginia and you've just fired a bunch of federal workers, that's going to show up. And if you cancel an important tunnel project in New Jersey and you have an election there, that's going to show up. If you've made gains with Hispanic voters, but then you run an administration that's rounding people up in communities and terrorizing communities, that's going to show up. And to date, they've acted pretty cavalier with some of their policies and the political impact of them. So hopefully this could be a bit of a reset where they're thinking a little more strategically about what they're doing substantively.
FADEL: So if you were advising, what would you say to do in this moment, given what happened on Tuesday?
BUCK: Well, it's certainly right to focus on the economy rhetorically, but I think you also need to focus on it substantively. I mean, you mentioned that I'm working on these ACA tax credits. I mean, that is a huge issue. Next year, either the - people's health care premiums are going to go up a little bit, or they're going to go up a lot. And that's a decision that Congress is going to have to face. I think that's one tangible thing that they can do. Again, the tariffs are something very tangible they can do.
But some of it is just sort of getting out of the bubble. I mean, too often, Republicans are only worried about whether their sort of conservative base is comfortable with what they're doing. And I think what we found on Tuesday is there's a whole world out there outside of your conservative base. And if you are not focused on those bread-and-butter issues, they're going to punish you. So it really requires you to think about those sort of middle-class, down the middle, independent voters who really still, even as polarized as we are, determine most outcomes.
FADEL: So are you saying they should sit down with the Democrats, figure out health care and get the government open?
BUCK: Well, that would be a good start, for sure. I mean, the government shutdown is not serving anyone's interests at this point. I don't think it's working for Democrats. I don't think it's working for Republicans. And it really does this - make everybody sour on Washington. And when you're the party in power, it doesn't do you very good to have everybody kind of just disgusted with what's going on. You're going to be the ones punished. And that's not a new dynamic. The party in power almost always has a bad first midterm election.
And so Republicans are working against history. They're working against now the economy, which - the Democrats have sort of taken that issue away from them. So they've got a lot of work to do. And hopefully, you know, as a Republican, we can figure that out and focus a little more on the things that people care about.
FADEL: That's Republican strategist Brendan Buck. Thank you so much for your time and your insights.
BUCK: Of course. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
