When Americans learned last week that inflation inched higher in August, despite Donald Trump’s demonstrably false claims to the contrary, it was the latest in a series of discouraging economic developments. In recent weeks, unemployment claims, job growth and the manufacturing sector have all moved in the wrong direction amid sluggish economic growth.

The president and his team have largely stuck to the idea that the White House’s faltering agenda will eventually produce encouraging results (though they’re not yet entirely sure when), and when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sat down with Axios, he offered a variation on the talking point. From the Axios report:

President Trump will own the economy’s performance by the end of 2025, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick tells Mike Allen on the ‘The Axios Show’ — a much later window than he and other administration officials have previously claimed. … ‘The economy that Donald Trump owns starts at the end of this year,’ Lutnick said.

To his credit, Allen pushed back against the claim, and for good reason: The Cabinet secretary’s efforts to move the goalposts were not to be taken seriously.

In fact, even Lutnick doesn’t appear to believe his own rhetoric, given that he recently said the opposite.

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As recently as July 30, Lutnick publicly declared that the Trump-era economy had “officially arrived.” A month later, the commerce secretary released a video statement in which he boasted, “Under President Trump, the economy is strong.”

Obviously, it’s impossible to take seriously the idea that Trump can claim ownership of the current economy, until the numbers look discouraging, at which point Trump’s ownership of the economy has been delayed by several months.

What’s more, there’s no reason to think anyone’s falling for any of this: The latest national Fox News poll found that a 52% majority of Americans believe Trump has made the economy worse rather than better, while only 30% believe the opposite.

During a Fox News appearance last week, the president boasted, “We have the best economy we’ve ever had.” The claim was plainly ridiculous, and if the White House intends to persuade the public, it will have to do far better than this.