It's Saturday, December 20th. I'm Ali Belchie. The date is important because the student in

your life may be spending this week studying for midterm exams, sweating their grade point

average, working hard to make up that extra point or two. It's crunch time for them. So too

for the president. Near the,

nearing the end of his first year in office, Donald Trump is facing a lower approval rating

than he's ever had as president in either term on the very issue that he was elected to improve

the cost of living. But unlike the young person in your life, Donald Trump is not suffering

from any performance anxiety.

I wonder what grade you would give your economy. A plus. A plus, plus, plus, plus, plus, plus.

That's five pluses, by the way. On Wednesday night, the president used a prime time address from the Oval Office, the thing that presidents do to announce wars, momentous events, or to commiserate around tragedies, to double down, seemingly

insisting that there is no real affordability problem in America right now. The American people

disagree bigly. According to a recent Associated Press, Nork poll, only 31% of Americans

approve of Trump's handling of the economy. That's more like an

F, or maybe an F plus plus plus plus plus plus. American sentiment about the economy is in the gutter.

46% of Americans in a recent political poll say the economy was the worst they could remember

it, including 37% of Trump supporters, 46% of Americans say Donald Trump is to blame. In the same poll, 27% of

Americans say they have skipped a medical checkup because of the cost. Several economic reports

out this week also show that Trump may be grading himself on a curve. The unemployment rate

for November ticked up to 4.6%. That's the highest it's been in four years.

The U.S. added 64,000 jobs. That's a decline from the 119,000 jobs added in September.

Inflation did slow down a bit in November, hitting 2.7%. That's down from 3% in September.

But 2.7% is still above where the Federal Reserve would like it to be.

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