At one polling place after another in Broward and Palm Beach counties last week, a consistent theme resonated among voters: They were there to express their anger at a Biden administration that failed to keep prices under control and presided over inflation levels that at one point two years ago reached 9%, the highest level in roughly four decades. A return to former President Donald Trump, they said, would help make their cost-burdened households become more manageable. It didn’t matter that the stock market boomed and that unemployment had fallen to a manageable 4.
1% nationally after the labor market nearly suffocated under double-digit numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The rate is even better in South Florida, where joblessness has hovered around the 3% range and job creation consistently has risen statewide for multiple months. Inflation, meanwhile, is back to within a range that has prompted renewed interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
But voter memories are focused on Trump’s first term, when inflation was nowhere near the 9% high reached in 2022 under President Joe Biden. “Obviously, during the Trump years, the economy was great,” said Brendan Doyle, 24, who works for a business financing firm in Boca Raton. “A lot of people were taking out money to grow and expand their businesses.
People’s livelihoods were just overall better. Over the last four years, everything changed. I’ve been seeing a lot of my old clients have to close down shop, file .
