A tale of two economies: How America's cost-of-living crisis is shaping US midterm elections

The economy is the number one issue for most American voters, as they worry about high food and energy costs. But can the results of November's midterm elections really impact the cost-of-living crisis? "There isn't a ton that anyone can do about it, regardless of who wins the midterms," says Greg Ip, chief economics commentator at The Wall Street Journal.

"They can't stop the war in Iran, because that is the purview of the president (...) To the extent that tariffs are one of the sources of inflation that people are unhappy about, simply changing control of Congress doesn't affect that."

Ip says there is a disconnect between the messaging of the Trump administration, the economic data and voters' perception of the economy. "You know the old saying – you can't eat GDP. A lot of the growth in GDP that we're seeing is accruing to companies in the form of much higher profits, or to the more affluent households who own stocks in companies that are connected to the AI boom. So for the median household, their incomes are simply not keeping up with what the strong GDP figures are showing (...) So in some senses, it's two economies facing us in this midterm."

FRANCE 24's correspondents Pierrick Leurent and Valerie Defert report on the backlash against AI data centers in Republican strongholds like Texas. Ip says it's a rare unifying issue in a divided economy. "In my opinion, part of the opposition to data centres right now is reflecting this deep-seated anxiety about AI overall. Data centres aren't necessarily the immediate cause, but they're a good proxy or target for that anxiety."