Former President Donald Trump said he’s unsure if the economy is the nation’s most important issue in a rally at Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday dedicated to the topic.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, took the stage at Asheville’s Thomas Wolfe Auditorium on Wednesday for a “last minute” rally after his campaign first contacted the city about the rally on August 8. The rally was dedicated to topics about the economy, but in the first few minutes, Trump said he was unsure economy was the top issue facing the nation.
“Today we are going to talk about one subject,” he said 15 minutes into his speech. “They say it’s the most important subject; I’m not sure it is, but they say it’s the most important. Inflation is the most important, but that’s part of the economy.”
Earlier in the speech, Trump said the economy was a very important subject but added that “crime” and “the border” also topped the list.
“A lot of people are very devastated by what’s happened with inflation and all of the other things,” he said. “It’s very important. They say it’s the most important subject. I think crime is right there, I think the border is right there, personally. We have a lot of important subjects because our country has become a third-world nation.”
A recent Gallup poll assessing the “most important problem” facing America found that only 33 percent of Americans feel the economy deserved the top spot.
Although 76 percent of Americans cited non-economic problems as their biggest concern, the number is up by 23 percent over the November 2020 numbers when Trump last ran for office. The number also is higher than it was at any point during Trump’s first term.
In addition, a Morning Consult poll conducted from August 9 to 11 found that 78 percent of respondents felt that the economy was a primary election issue. Only 18 percent of respondents said they’d heard positive news regarding the economy in the past week, with 42 percent reporting negative comments.
Newsweek reached out to the Trump and Harris campaigns by email for comment.
After his opening remarks, Trump proceeded to tell the approximately 2,400 in the crowd that if he won the November election against Democratic challenger Kamala Harris, he would “Make America Affordable Again,” a play on his slogan to Make America Great Again.
“The American dream is dead,” he said at one point. “You don’t hear about the American dream anymore, it’s dead.”
Trump went on to blame “radical liberal policies,” “horrific inflation” that has “decimated the middle class” and “gutted finances” of millions of American families. He then pledged that incomes would “soar,” savings would “grow,” and young people could afford homes again should he return to office.
A recent survey conducted for the Financial Times and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business found voters trust the Democratic candidate, Harris, more than Trump, the Republican nominee, on the economy for the first time in almost a year.
The survey found that 41 percent trust Trump will be better at handling the economy, while 42 percent believe Harris would be better—up 7 points from President Joe Biden‘s numbers in a July survey.
Update 8/14/24, 5:18 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
