Gas averaged $4.37 a gallon nationwide on Sunday morning, according to AAA. That same morning, Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told CNN viewers he doesn't believe the polls showing Americans feel negatively about the economy.
"Ahead of an election cycle, the fact that there's, you know, possibly partisan pollsters telling us that the people are really really depressed, it's a classic Democrat move, and I just don't buy it," Hassett told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."
He pointed to consumer spending as his evidence. "Because if it were true, if the polls were any value for thinking about what's going on with consumers, then we should look at the consumption data and say, 'Geez, yeah, that's right. People aren't spending.' But, in fact, the retailers are doing well," he said. The remarks as reported don't include specific spending figures.
What Americans Are Telling Pollsters
The surveys Hassett dismissed come from more than one source. A Quinnipiac University poll found 62 percent of respondents opposed President Trump's handling of the economy. That's nearly two in three.
An Associated Press/NORC Research Center survey asked a different question: why are prices so high? Sixty-five percent said the president's policies were behind them, more than any other economic driver the survey measured. More than half of respondents said the national economy and the United States overall had been worse off since the president returned to the White House.
The broader picture looks similar. Decision Desk HQ's polling average put Trump's overall approval rating at 38.5 percent on Sunday morning.
The Price at the Pump
Few prices are as visible as gasoline. The average for a gallon of regular has stayed consistently above $4 during the Iran war, AAA data showed. The Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the oil industry, is closed amid the conflict.
The war and the president's tariffs are both unpopular, and both are political problems for Republicans heading into the midterms. Hassett's comments came as the party faces that pressure, and he framed the negative polling as a partisan tactic rather than a reflection of what voters are experiencing.
His argument rests on retail performance. The polls rest on what respondents themselves say about their prices, their policies and their country's direction. Those two measures point in different directions, and the administration's top economic official chose to trust the first.
Why This Matters:
When the person coordinating the White House's economic policy dismisses the public's own account of its finances, it raises a question of accountability. Aggregate retail numbers can look healthy while households absorb higher costs at the pump, and a spending total doesn't say who is paying more or what they're giving up. Voters in two separate surveys named presidential policies as a main reason for high prices. Gas has stayed above $4 during a war the article describes as unpopular. As a matter of perspective, officials in a democracy are best positioned to respond to hardship when they take seriously what people say about it. The midterms will test whether voters see it Hassett's way or their own.