Democrats are sounding the alarm on the impacts of President Donald Trump’s administration on the Michigan economy.
Democrats cite statistics from the Census Bureau and the Yale Budget Lab in estimates that Michigan working families will lose a combined $1,060 each year from Trump’s tariffs and Republicans’ budget bill.
The DNC claims Michigan families lost $691 in higher costs due to Trump’s inflation, according to data released last week from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Trump promised to lower costs for Michigan families on Day One, but he’s done the opposite,” DNC Chair Ken Martin in a statement to Michigan Chronicle. “Trump has spent his first year wining and dining CEOs and billionaires while skyrocketing costs, killing jobs, steering our economy toward recession, and kicking millions of Americans off their health care. Families are worse off than they were a year ago, but Democrats are standing up to fight for them.”
Martin said voters are rejecting Trump’s politics at the ballot box and will do so in next year’s Midterm election. In 2025, Democrats saw significant victories in toss-up races like the Virginia governor’s race, which saw Democrat Abigail Spanberger defeat Republican Winsome Sears.
The party views Michigan as a key state in the effort to block Trump’s agenda through Congress. In teh November 2026 election voters in the Great Lakes State will elect a new U.S. Senator.
It’s been 1992 since Michigan voters sent a Republican to represent them in the U.S. Senate.
“Working Americans nationwide are sending a message: Enough is enough. As Trump has his fun with gilded ballrooms and Great Gatsby parties while ignoring everybody else, Michigan families know Democrats will keep fighting on their behalf every day to lower costs and improve lives.”
The fight in Washington has revolved mainly around the extension of healthcare tax credits that Democrats, and some Republicans like Majorie Taylor Greene, say would triple monthly premiums.
While the Trump White House blamed Democrats for the shutdown that it says cost the private sector as many as 62,000 new jobs nationwide in October, Democrats say without the extension of ACA tax credits, a 60-year-old Michigander making around $63,000 would see their monthly premiums increase by an average of 151%.
More than 470,000 Affordable Care Act marketplace enrollees in Michigan are at risk of losing enhanced ACA tax credits because of Republicans’ refusal to extend the tax credits, the DNC says, pointing to data from KFF, a San Francisco based health policy research organization.
“Since Donald Trump took office in January, this year has been a complete disaster for Michiganders. Under Trump, working families are struggling with skyrocketing prices and a dismal job market, rural communities are being gutted, family farm bankruptcies are soaring, and Michigan’s economy is taking a nosedive.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt points to a jobs report released Tuesday, Dec. 16, showing the private sector has gained 121,000 jobs since September as evidence that the president’s agenda is creating a strong economy.
“The strong jobs report shows how President Trump is fixing the damage caused by Joe Biden and creating a strong, America First economy in record time. Since President Trump took office, 100% of the job growth has come in the private sector and among native-born Americans — exactly where it should be,” Leavitt said.
Democrats also point to proposed cuts to SNAP programs that could cause over 22 million families nationwide to lose some or all of their benefits.
In Michigan, SNAP improves food security for more than 1.4 million low-income residents.
The DNC cites data from the Urban Institute in its estimates that 796,000 of those individuals lose at least some or all of their benefits.
“These programs are a cost-efficient means of ensuring those with the greatest need have access to vital health care services and nutrition, and are central to Michigan’s economic well-being,” the state’s Health and Human Services Department says.
Polling shows 67% of Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy and 61% disapprove of his job performance overall.
“By nearly every metric, Donald Trump has been a disaster for Michigan. There’s a reason why Trump’s approval rating is plummeting to historic lows — his failed economic agenda has made the cost of living too expensive for Michiganders,” a spokesperson for the DNC said in a statement.
