“I inherited a mess,” President Trump told an audience of supporters in Georgia last Thursday, referring to the U.S. economy. The Democrats “caused the affordability problem, and we’ve solved it!” he bragged. Two days earlier on Fox Business he had proclaimed an even grander achievement: “I think we have the greatest economy actually ever in history.”
When a president talks like that 37 weeks before the midterm elections, it means one thing: The economy is the No. 1 issue, and it’s a problem for the incumbent party because a large number of voters don’t believe the economy is doing well at all. The reason it’s a problem is clear. History shows it never works to tell unhappy voters that they actually live in a wonderful economy, and research shows that humans are hardwired to believe what they feel and not what someone else tells them. Voters aren’t going to change.
By the numbers, the U.S. economy may not be the greatest ever, but it certainly isn’t bad. Last year it grew 2.2% adjusted for inflation, which is more than most economists expected. The unemployment rate remains low at 4.3%, and wages have grown, though not spectacularly.
