Trump’s economic progress report to the country — and what’s next |
Reconciling improving inflation stats to the real-world buying experiences of American consumers has proven to be a challenge for this White House, but Tuesday night marked a welcome change, as President Donald Trump kicked off his 2026 midterm economic argument to voters.
It was the first step in a long-term case he needs to prove. The economic data of the past few months has generated more questions than answers as we wait for more reporting. People are just as confused as the economists, wondering if the glass is half empty or half full.
Is the poor job growth in the last half of 2025 why we saw low GDP growth in the last quarter, or was the higher third-quarter growth a precursor to the positive January jobs report? And why have some kitchen table goods and services remained stubbornly high?
Trump’s State of the Union speech this week needed to achieve two objectives. First, it had to give voters some context on the state of the economy, the policies his administration has put into place to fix it and new initiatives he is proposing to further address Americans’ ongoing economic challenges.
The second objective was to deliver a positive, uplifting speech that might begin to turn around not just people’s view of the economy, but their approval or disapproval of the job he is doing as president to address their concerns, specifically the cost of living.
When people feel better about the country, they generally will also feel better about the people leading it. Makes sense.
The electorate’s focus on the economy over the last year has been clear. A CBS News poll (Feb. 20-23), done just prior to the speech, found this was far and away the topic........