From near the bottom rung of the economic ladder, certified nursing assistant Traci Dixon looks a long way up to the White House, occupied by billionaire President Donald Trump.
For more than 20 years, the Independence, Missouri, woman has struggled to pay her bills, feed her family and make sure the kids get to school. She’s seen Democratic and Republican presidents come and go, celebrated and suffered from the ups-and-downs of the nation’s economy, and kept her wife by her side as they’ve raised kids and grandkids.
But despite Trump’s promises of a rapid economic turnaround, life has never felt tougher than right now, she said.
“I felt this year was going to be a dramatic change for all the better,” said Dixon, 37, who was working a long shift on Election Day and didn’t vote in last year’s presidential election. “But there’s all this darkness that’s already here and it’s only April.”
Nearly 100 days after Trump took the oath of office for a second time, consumer and business sentiment is spasming from widespread federal job cuts, a ping-ponging stock market and president’s on-again, off-again tariffs.
Leading economists are predicting the U.S. could enter a recession, and millions of Americans are struggling with the continuing high cost of gas and groceries while getting buried beneath a growing mountain of credit card bills and car payments.