Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume used a new poll from the conservative network to highlight how he thinks the issue of inflation is “plaguing” Donald Trump’s administration and the GOP ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
On Wednesday’s broadcast of “Special Report With Bret Baier,” Hume read the results of a new Fox News poll showing that 63% of Americans believe Trump’s administration has made the U.S. economy worse, which is 11 percentage points higher than the portion that believed the same thing in 2025.
The same polling, Hume noted, showed grocery prices were currently posing a “major problem” for 62% of those polled, while gas prices were for 61%.
“The president was elected in the hope, I believe, that inflation could be brought under control. And to some extent on many products it has,” said Hume.
“But when it comes to gasoline, it reflects on the Iran war, and groceries, which have continued to go up, the problem is worse,” he continued. “And this is plaguing the Republicans … and the president and driving down his approval rating.”
Anchor Bret Baier aired video of Vice President JD Vance this week begging voters: “Don’t give power to the people who caused the problems that we’re fixing. Give us another chance or give us another couple of years to continue to work on the amazing things that we’ve been doing for the past two years.”
Vance “has a point,” Hume argued. “The economy is growing, jobs are pretty plentiful. The poverty rate, I believe, hit its lowest point in modern history just about now. So, the economy is doing, in many respects, quite well. There’s growth. There’s the things you want. But this business with prices is just, it’s just killing this administration and the president’s party.”
The same Fox News poll showed how discontent with Trump’s tariff policy has grown from 57% to 64% in the past year and that only 8% of those polled are “enthusiastic about how the government is working.”