Newsmax host and former Trump administration official Marc Lotter confronted Rep. Keith Self (R-TX) with a poll on Thursday, showing that eight out of 10 Americans feel financial “strain” under President Donald Trump, with six out of 10 blaming the president.

“So obviously ending the war, very critical ahead of the midterms,” said Lotter during his interview with Self on Wake Up America. “Americans, I mean, we know they want lower gas prices, they want lower grocery prices, they want things back to normal.”

Lotter then confronted Self with a new NPR/PBS/Marist poll, which shows “81% [of Americans] say the pain at the pump is really putting a strain on their household budgets,” while 63% “place a great deal or good amount of blame on President Trump.”

“A strong majority blame the president for this. Do you worry about this heading into the midterms?” the Newsmax host questioned. “Or do you think once the war is over and we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, people are gonna go, ‘OK, it was worth that short-term price increase’?”

Self responded, “Well, we do need to get the prices down because it is a key – and look, the November election will turn on the economy unless we have this war still going, which we are not, so it will turn on the economy, and I believe that once people get the idea that their lives are improving, and they are improving in many factors – but we do need to get that price down because it’s right there in your face every day when you buy gasoline or diesel.”

While Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent assured Americans on Monday that gas prices would fall in the coming weeks, Trump shrugged off the problem, boasting that “everybody was wrong” about gas prices skyrocketing as a result of his ongoing conflict with Iran.

“Everybody was wrong,” claimed Trump. “They thought that energy would be at $300, right? Three hundred dollars a barrel. And it’s, like, at $100. And I think going down. And I see it going down very substantially when this is over.”

Watch above via Newsmax.

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