Latinos across the country who supported President Trump in the last election are expressing regret one hundred days into Trump’s second administration.  While Kamala Harris won the overall Latino vote, there were undeniable gains made by Republicans, particularly among Latino men. The Trump campaign and Republicans raved about the gains they made within the Latino community, but findings from our bipartisan First 100 Day Hispanic Voter Survey sponsored by UnidosUS, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Voces Unidas, and Climate Power en Acción, found that sixty percent of Latino voters believe that the United States is headed in the wrong direction. 

This sentiment about the direction of the country included sixty-one percent of independent Latino voters and twenty seven percent of Latino Republican voters. Almost one in ten Latinos who voted for Trump in 2024 said they would not vote for Trump if they had to do it again. Another nine percent of Latinos who voted for Trump in 2024 said they were not sure.  

Four of the top five most important issues to Latinos in our survey are focused on the economy – cost of living/inflation, jobs and the economy, housing costs and affordability, and health care. It is widely recognized that the economy was the main driver to Trump’s 2024 win, but fifty-four percent of Latino voters in the United States say they are feeling worse about the economy right now than they did a year ago, and fifty percent say they believe that Trump’s policies will only worsen the state of the economy. Among Latinos who voted for President Trump in 2024, twenty-five percent said the economy is worse off today than it was at this time last year. This negative outlook on the economy is similar in both Democrat and Republican states, with fifty-eight percent and fifty-six percent of Latinos in California and Texas, respectively, feeling this way.

Trump’s tariffs are also a cause for worry for many Latino voters, with fifty-two percent of Latinos saying that inflation is getting worse because of the President’s new tariffs. Among Latinos who think the country is going in the wrong direction, nearly seventy percent say that elected officials should focus on addressing food and basic living expenses that are too high. Despite Trump’s claims that the economic woes are a result of the former administration, it is clear that Latinos are viewing this as Trump’s economy, with nearly a third of Latino Republicans saying they blame Trump the most for the rising cost of living. 

However, it is not clear if Democrats will become beneficiaries of the President’s poor 100-day performance without demonstrable actions aimed at helping the Latino community. When asked what they think Democratic members of Congress should be doing, sixty percent say they should fight hard against the Trump administration and his policies. Half of Latinos believe that the Democrats would do best at addressing their top concerns, including fifty-two percent who are looking to Democrats to address rising inflation and cost of living. Overall, sixty-three percent of Latinos say they feel favorably towards the Democrats in Congress, compared to only thirty five percent who feel favorably towards Congressional Republicans. This once again puts Democrats in the familiar position of having a clear pathway to earning Latino votes if they can achieve demonstrable victories for the Latino community.

Promises of reduced inflation and lowering costs were consistent talking points for the president. Only 100 days in, Americans have nearly a full Trump presidency to look forward to. However, the economy will become the defining measure of this administration. Trump, seen as “good for the economy” by many of his voters in November of 2024 has tried to distance himself from economic concerns of Americans across the country, but Latinos will view Trump’s success through the economy, and their economic worries are mounting. Despite visions of a better economy, the data from our survey suggests that Latinos continue to seek solutions to their everyday problems, and the last election showed that more than enough Latinos are willing to look elsewhere if they do not see results.