Mortgage Rates SPIRAL As Trump Polling TANKS

TL;DR

Mortgage rates are surging back toward 7% while Trump's economy approval craters to 29%, linked to petrodollar threats from the Iran war.

Key Points

• 1.The petrodollar system faces an existential test from the Iran conflict. A Deutsche Bank report warned that the Middle East's strategic importance to the dollar's reserve currency status is underestimated, and Iran is now allowing oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz only if they trade in Yuan.
• 2.Mortgage rates have surged back above 6% and are approaching 7%. After hopes that rates would fall and unlock the frozen housing market, the recent trend reversal has eliminated optimism for buyers and sellers locked into existing mortgages.
• 3.Trump's economic approval rating has collapsed to 29%. Down from roughly 50% at the start of his second term and far below his first-term highs, the collapse mirrors Biden-era lows and arrives in a midterm election year.
• 4.Trump conflates stock market performance with economic wellbeing, confusing his own messaging. He publicly muses 'what's wrong with voters' when markets are up, while ordinary Americans feel squeezed by prices, uncertainty, and the early impact of tariffs and AI displacement.
• 5.Pennsylvania State Rep Chris Rab is running for Philadelphia's open congressional seat on an anti-establishment platform. Endorsed by Justice Democrats, he refuses corporate PAC money, supports Medicare for All co-sponsorship, abolishing ICE, and explicitly calls what's happening in Gaza a genocide — litmus tests that voters are actively applying.
• 6.Opponent Aya Stanford drew backlash for comparing the word 'genocide' to the n-word. The comment, highlighted by Sunrise Movement Philadelphia, was condemned broadly, including by Jewish voters who objected to conflating AIPAC with Jewish identity.
• 7.Super PAC 314 Action has funneled over $2 million into Stanford's campaign, with strong evidence it is AIPAC money. The group normally spends low six figures in races; reporting from a prior Seattle race confirmed AIPAC used 314 Action as a shell — a pattern now repeating in Philadelphia.