Conservatives have been positively giddy with the whirlwind of activity out of the White House over the past five weeks. But if President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress don’t start focusing on the economy, the excitement will be short-lived.
Not only are there worrisome signs of an economic slowdown, but the public is growing increasingly frustrated with what they see as a lack of attention to pocketbook issues on Trump’s part. Republican lawmakers are making matters worse by dawdling on extending Trump’s tax cuts, which is causing businesses to hold off on big investments. This is a lethal combination.
The latest sign the economy continues to struggle comes from the GDPNow, produced by the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank, which projects GDP growth for each quarter based on currently available data, and changes as those data roll in. Data released on Monday caused a sharp downgrade in GDPNow forecast to -2.8% for the quarter, from -1.5% last Friday.
Meanwhile, the Consumer Confidence Index dropped sharply in February and “pessimism about the future returned,” according to the Conference Board.
The latest I&I/TIPP poll finds that 76% of those surveyed are concerned about an economic slowdown, with 45% saying they are “very concerned.” And 82% are troubled about inflation. Here's the full report on the poll’s findings.
In other words, we are not out of the woods yet.
Here’s the worrisome part.
The public doesn’t think Trump is as focused on the economy as he should be. The I&I/TIPP poll found that just 45% say he’s “giving enough attention to economic issues.” Among independents, it’s just 38%.
Two other recent polls found the same thing. A CBS News/YouGov poll found that 80% of adults say Trump should concentrate more on the economy and inflation. And a CNN poll found that only 40% say Trump has the right priorities.
Those perceptions aren’t the result of media bias. As far as we can tell, Trump has said very little about the economy, but plenty about DOGE, tariffs, border security, Ukraine, and DEI. These are all legitimate issues, but they aren’t why working-class Americans voted Trump into office.
Don’t get us wrong, we are not suggesting that it’s somehow Trump’s fault if the economy is struggling. He’s been in office for only five weeks, and what we are seeing right now is the bitter end of the economic wreckage that Joe Biden’s tax-spend-and-regulate policies caused.
Trump hasn’t exactly helped things, however. As American Enterprise Institute economist Michael Strain put it: “All the uncertainty around trade policy, uncertainty around some of the things that the Department of Government Efficiency is going, I think will have a chilling effect on investment plans and expansion plans.”
But it doesn’t matter that Trump isn’t to blame for any near-term economic problems. He will be blamed. By every Democrat. By every mainstream media outlet. By every late-night talk show host, celebrity and internet troll. The echo chamber will be busy.
The press is already doing its part. Witness Margaret Brennan of “Face the Nation,” who pressed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the economy, saying “Our polling also shows at least half the country reports concern about paying for food and groceries and housing. They continue to call the economy bad, even more so than last month, and 49% told us the economy is getting worse.” She then demanded to know when Trump was going to fix it.
Bessent responded by saying: “You know, Margaret, what I find interesting is, for the past year-and-a-half and during the campaign, most of the media said, oh, the economy is great, it’s just a vibe session. Now that President Trump’s in office, there’s an economic problem.”
This is, by the way, exactly as we predicted right after Trump was elected, when we said that the news media would immediately switch from “The economy is doing great!” to “Why hasn’t Trump fixed the economy yet??”
Bessent is right, too, to point out that it took four years of Biden to get into this mess.
But this is a perception problem. One that only Trump can address.
Trump and company need to show to the public that they are on top of this – before bad news strikes. Responding to it after the fact will accomplish nothing. What’s more, it will cause Republicans to start running for the hills if the blame-Trump mantra starts to sink in.
That means spending less time blaming Biden and more time talking about his plans to repair the damage and get the economy moving again. Talk about his plans to free the economy from regulatory shackles. Unleash America’s energy. Cut the gargantuan national debt. Simplify taxes. And help the public understand that it will take time for his policies to work (like Reagan did with his “stay the course” mantra during the 1981 recession).
There’s good news to share. At Monday’s press briefing, for example, Trump announced a $100 billion investment by a Taiwanese chipmaker. Earlier Apple announced plans to spend $500 billion in the U.S. We need more talk like this, more often.
Trump has an opportunity to get started on this messaging campaign in tonight’s address to Congress. We hope he takes it.
Issues & Insights was founded by seasoned journalists of the IBD Editorials page. Our mission is to provide timely, fact-based reporting and deeply informed analysis on the news of the day – without fear or favor.
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