‘Desperate’ Trump Turns to Democrats for Help

President Donald Trump is now doing what many inside his own party once considered unthinkable. He’s reaching out to Democrats for help on the economy—an admission, advisers say privately, that his signature “America First” agenda is failing as a brutal midterm map approaches.

Senior officials confirmed to multiple outlets Friday that Trump’s team has explored “informal policy conversations” with Democratic lawmakers. One longtime MAGA aide described the move as a “last-ditch attempt to stop a wipeout in November.”

“This White House is out of ideas,” a Democratic Senate staffer told us. “They gutted federal agencies, blew up trade relationships, and ignored expert warnings. Now they’re asking us how to fix the mess? That’s rich.”

Trump campaigned on restoring manufacturing, breaking foreign dependence, and bringing “economic glory” back to American families. But by early 2026, the numbers tell a different story.

Inflation is stuck at 2.7 percent. Essentials cost more. Utilities and groceries are devouring paychecks. Lower- and middle-income voters—Trump’s self-proclaimed base—are being squeezed hardest.

A former Treasury economist who served under both parties put it bluntly: “Tariffs don’t rebuild an economy. They raise prices. Every freshman economics student knows this.”

Trump has insisted his aggressive tariffs would create a “level playing field.” But decades of data show U.S. markets have long benefited from global trade. Businesses, facing steeper import barriers, are now passing those costs straight to consumers.

Unemployment is not soaring, but job growth has slowed across manufacturing, tech, and logistics. That slowdown was made worse by Trump’s sweeping federal workforce purge last year, which eliminated hundreds of thousands of government jobs in the name of “cutting waste.”

Local economies built around federal employment still haven’t recovered. “It ripped the floor out from under entire counties,” said a longtime community advocate in Maryland. “People lost jobs, health insurance, everything.”

Then came the historic 2025 shutdown—nearly two months long—triggered by Trump’s demand for unilateral spending authority. Economists estimate it cost the nation tens of billions of dollars. It also shattered business confidence, which has yet to fully rebound.

A new Wall Street Journal poll shows a grim public mood. Voters are 15 points more likely to call the economy “weak” rather than “strong.” More than half say things are worse than a year ago.

Trump’s pivot is politically risky. For years he’s blamed Democrats for every economic setback. At Davos this week, he repeated the line, claiming the country had “barely survived the Biden stagflation years” and warning that “Democratic economic policy is a recipe for decline.”

But behind closed doors, his advisers appear to be exploring exactly those Democratic policies.

One White House official tried to explain the shift. “The president is looking at a hybrid model,” the official said. “It’s not purely Democratic. It’s not purely Republican. It’s an evolution of Trump-style populism.”

Critics, however, see panic.

“They’re scrambling,” said Dr. Leila Hartman, a political economist at NYU. “Trump broke a lot of things. Now he’s realizing he has to govern. And governing means asking for help from the people he attacked.”

Republicans, sensing danger ahead, are bracing for what some strategists fear could be a “midterm bloodbath.” Trump’s approval on the economy has dropped to its lowest point since returning to office.

As one Democratic congressman put it: “If Trump wants our ideas, he can start by admitting the truth—that his economic experiment isn’t working for American families.”