Gideon Resnick

Jacob Bogage is the White House economic correspondent for The Washington Post.

A new poll from PBS News, NPR, and Marist found that 36% of Americans approve of Trump's handling of the economy.

That marks the lowest in their polling on the issue across his two terms in office.

A recent AP poll found similar levels of dissatisfaction.

And economic data does show that prices have edged up for much of Trump's first year back at the White House.

Recently, the administration has taken some actions to ease cost of living concerns, including rolling back some tariffs on grocery goods like Brazilian coffee and beef, a plan to cut the price of weight loss drugs, and rolling back fuel efficiency rules to make cars more affordable.

And just last night, Trump announced a plan to send checks to members of the U.S.

military.

Meanwhile, the White House is also actively trying to message to voters that they're working on the affordability crisis.

Just this week, Vice President J.D.

Vance made a stop in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, bearing that message.

Bogage told us that while Republicans close to Trump believe he has delivered on eliminating regulatory red tape in addition to tax hikes and cuts, Americans are just still unhappy with how things are going.

On the employment front, figures released this week showed the U.S.

added 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October.

Those job losses include thousands of federal workers who accepted delayed resignations.

The unemployment rate also ticked up to 4.6%, the highest since 2021.

President Trump has embraced the power of pardons in his second term, granting clemency to more than 1,700 people.

But there's one MAGA loyalist that Trump wants to free but can't.

Tina Peters was a Colorado county clerk convicted last year for tampering with voting equipment under her control after the 2020 election.

Handing down the sentence, the judge didn't hold back in his assessment of Peter's character.