When he sat down with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham for an interview that aired last week, Donald Trump asserted that the current U.S. economy is “as strong as it’s ever been.” The host asked a reasonable follow-up question: “Why are people saying they’re anxious about the economy?”
The president questioned the premise. “I don’t know that they are saying that; I think polls are fake,” Trump replied. “We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had.”
The evidence to the contrary is overwhelming. As the president’s second term crosses the 10-month mark, the unemployment rate is worse; inflation is worse; the national debt is worse; and even the trade deficit is worse, fueling sustained chatter about the nation’s “Trump slump.”
As a political matter, the president’s strategy for dealing with these trends — to simply tell Americans how great things are, reality be damned — appears to be failing in predictable ways. The latest Fox News poll, for example, found that a whopping 76% of voters have negative views about the state of the U.S. economy and that a plurality believe the White House’s agenda has made things worse, not better.
The results were similarly dreadful for the Republican in the latest national Marquette Law School survey, which found Trump’s approval rating on the economy has dropped to a woeful 36%. Asked about the president’s handling of inflation and the cost of living, the same poll’s participants supported him at a rate of just 28%.
The data suggests playing make-believe and trying to sell the public on an alternative reality in which Americans “have the greatest economy we’ve ever had” was a losing proposition. Voters simply aren’t buying what Trump is selling — because their own life experiences are at odds with the president’s hollow talking points.
As the clock ticks down on 2025 and reality overtakes their hype, the Republican administration is rolling out a new pitch: Things will be great next year.
On Thursday night, for example, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News that he’s “very optimistic” about the “accelerating” economic growth that Americans will see in the third quarter of 2026 (covering July, August and September).
Hours earlier, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick took a similar message to Fox Business, predicting that the public will see job growth “in the second half of next year” that will “blow you away.”
Maybe, maybe not — time will tell. There’s reason for some skepticism about these confident predictions, however, not just because the Republican administration’s economic agenda is a mess, but also because some of us can remember the last time these officials offered similar assurances.
In August, for example, Bessent boasted to a national television audience that the U.S. economy is “really going to pick up in the fourth quarter” of 2025. Now that we’re currently here in the fourth quarter, most Americans are thoroughly dissatisfied. In early September, Lutnick said during a CNBC interview that Americans will see robust growth “six months from now.” Almost three months later, the same Cabinet secretary has pushed out his forecast, apparently aware that the Trump economy will not meet Lutnick’s rosy forecast. And therein lies the point: The Republican administration isn’t just failing, it’s responding to its failures by moving the goalposts. Indeed, at an event this week, JD Vance toed the line, suggesting success is still on the horizon. “The thing that I’d ask for the American people is a little bit of patience,” the vice president said. What he didn’t mention, however, was that the public was told that it wouldn’t have to be patient. As a candidate, Trump promised to deliver immediate, Day 1 results. In the months that followed, his team suggested that Americans would see great results by the end of 2025, and after that fell through, it has started pointing to the late summer of 2026. If the White House wants to understand why voters are so unhappy, there’s no great mystery to unravel.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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