Vice President JD Vance defended President Donald Trump’s self-awarded “A+” on the economy on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, under pointed questioning from CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins — even as the vice president has spent the closing stretch of the midterm campaign telling voters something softer than his boss does: that he hears their frustration, and that the fix is not finished.
Collins pressed Vance on how the administration earns top marks when inflation, gas prices and mortgage rates have all risen since it took office. Annual inflation stood at 3.4 percent in August, up from roughly 3 percent at the start of the term, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Gasoline averaged about $4.36 a gallon on Oct. 8, according to AAA, after sitting below $3 before the February strikes on Iran.
Vance answered by reaching back, saying the administration inherited what he called the worst inflation crisis in 48 years and crediting it with $19 trillion in new investment, a manufacturing boom and a surge in factory construction. Factories take time to build and staff, he argued. “You’re already seeing great benefits, but we’re going to see a lot more benefits come in the months and years ahead,” Vance told Collins. He had appeared that day to announce the suspension of Microsoft from the PERM green card program, accusing the company of fraud in its hiring and of abusing the H-1B visa program.
Two Messages on One Economy
The president has shown no such patience with the premise of the question. Traveling to a campaign event in Texas, Trump told reporters he deserved an “A+” across the board and dismissed the economic pain of the war with Iran as the price of stopping that country from building a nuclear weapon. In late September he said more Americans are working than at any point in the nation’s history but that almost nobody knows it — the reason, he said, that he is out selling the record himself, because other Republicans are not.
Voters are not grading on the same curve. An AP-NORC poll in late September found 82 percent of adults disapprove of Trump’s handling of the cost of living, against 17 percent who approve. The September jobs report showed just 29,000 positions added, far below expectations, with wages failing to keep pace with inflation. Consumer sentiment has dropped near an all-time low, and mortgage rates have climbed to their highest level since late 2023.
Vance Asks Voters for More Time
On the trail, Vance has made the ask explicit. “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” he has told crowds at several rallies. In an interview with Real America’s Voice, he said nobody should have expected every problem solved in 18 months — and that people’s concerns cannot be waved away. At the All-In Summit in September, a gathering of business, tech and investment leaders, he urged the audience not to hand power back to the people who created the problems he says the administration is repairing, and to give Republicans another couple of years.
It is a register he has used before. At a Breitbart News event in Washington on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 — weeks after Republican losses in New Jersey and Virginia that voters attributed largely to disappointment with Trump’s domestic agenda — Vance said the administration heard the public and knew progress would take time to feel.
What Nov. 3 Could Mean for 2028
Vance, 42, is widely viewed as the leading Republican prospect for 2028, and he has said consistently that any decision waits until after the midterms. In an interview published Oct. 1, conducted aboard Air Force Two after a return flight from Lakeland, Fla., where he campaigned for Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., and Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., the Republican nominee for governor, he acknowledged the party faces a historical uphill climb. Asked whether a poor showing on Nov. 3 would weigh on his thinking, Vance replied: “You make these decisions by collecting as much information and trying to make a wise decision.” He added, “regardless of what happens over the next 35 days, there will be new information, new things you have to make a decision over.”
He was noncommittal about whether heavy losses would sour the climate for a run, saying he avoids hypotheticals and will leave the verdict to voters. The White House, for its part, said in a statement that the president and vice president are delivering one message: that if Republicans hold Congress and keep advancing Trump’s agenda, American families will have more money, secure borders and safer streets.
