Voters complain that the economy is bad.
Trump promises to truly crater it, Musk stands behind him and promises said austerity.
Voters still vote for Trump on the basis of economy.
Are there any other ways to interpret it? Than that your average voter simply doesn't know the basics of econ?
What are the "basics of econ" in your view?
Tariffs increase prices, for example.
I agree that tariffs aren't good econ policy. What are your views on grocery "price gouging"? Rent controls?
Tariffs are worse, but, all three aren't great.
Depends on implementation but in general we already don't have a free market, and if we did the American economy would collapse with the destruction of the entire farming sector and possibly the oil and gas sector, so I don't dismiss price controls on groceries or rent controls out of hand.
Singapore has nationalized housing and is extraordinarily prosperous. Perhaps rent control isn't a good measure and we should simply do that instead.
In interviews with people who are primarily voting on the economy a common response is that they feel things were economically better for them under Trump than they were under Biden. They want to go back to that, and they believe Trump can do it again.