It was a minor mistake. Everyone knew what Trump was talking about. But his focus on slow growth, despite a record level of total economic activity, illustrates the apparent outlook of some of his supporters.

Throughout Trump's campaign, pundits and analysts have puzzled over the fact that even though some of his supporters complain about current economic policies and tend to describe themselves as financially insecure, they are quite well off compared with other voters. One possible explanation for this paradox is that the Trump supporters are less concerned with how much income they receive than with the growth of their income over time.

After all, Trump's slogan — “Make America Great Again" -- alludes to a time when the economy was growing more rapidly, but GDP has never been greater than it is now.

Indeed, his supporters are predominantly white men, a group that is relatively prosperous on average but one that has experienced limited gains in its average income for decades. Meanwhile, women and people of color have enjoyed greater improvements on average.

Polling data supports this hypothesis. While researchers and pollsters have not been able to identify any association between voters' incomes in dollars and how they feel about Trump, his supporters to tend to be more anxious about their finances.

AD

AD

According to analysis by The Washington Post of a poll conducted with ABC News during the primary, Republicans who felt as though they were “struggling” financially were significantly more likely to support Trump. The pattern held even among Republicans who were similar in terms of race, religion, education and other factors and who had similar views on questions about race.

More recently, Gallup corroborated this finding with a much larger sample. Based on tends of thousands of interviews about the campaign that the organization has conducted by phone over the past year, Jonathan Rothwell, an economist at Gallup, found that Trump's supporters felt more insecure about their finances.

For instance, they were more likely to say they were cutting back on spending, that they would not be able to make a major purchase, that they didn't have enough money for their wants or for their needs, or that they were worried about their financial situation more generally.

AD

AD

Again, even among Republicans with similar occupations and levels of educational attainment and who were similar with respect to other socioeconomic factors, those who reported feeling financially insecure in one way or another were more likely to view Trump favorably.

Rothwell noted that these concerns seemed unconnected with how Trump's supporters were actually doing. Indeed, the differences between those with favorable and unfavorable views of Trump were greatest among those who said they had at least $200,000 in income.

A majority — 52 percent — of those making at least $200,000 with a favorable view of Trump said they were “not feeling better about [their] financial situation these days,” compared to just 25 percent among those with the same income who viewed Trump unfavorably.

AD

Those figures suggest that perhaps Trump is drawing some of his support from relatively affluent people who feel as though they are no longer making progress. While it was probably an unconscious error, his conflation of national income with the fact that it is growing slowly mirrors their frustrations.