Even MSNBC Host Knows that Trump's Booming Economy Is Bad News for 2020 Dems
There is an old political axiom that asserts as long as the American economy holds steady and strong, an incumbent president and his party will typically perform well in an election.
Given the success of the U.S. economy over the past two years because of President Donald Trump’s business-friendly regulatory and tax policies, it is becoming increasingly apparent to many that, should the economy hold steady or continue to improve, Trump will almost assuredly enjoy a huge advantage over his Democratic challenger going into the 2020 election.
Even MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing admitted as much in reporting on the incredible April jobs report, prior to letting her “objective journalist” mask slip to reveal her inner Democratic Party strategist who openly worried on air about how Democrats could overcome the excellent economic news to have a shot at defeating Trump, according to a report from the Media Research Center.
“And breaking news, the April jobs report just released and, wow, employers adding 263,000 jobs, dropping the unemployment rate to the lowest in almost 50 years,” Jansing said. “Those numbers presenting a 2020 challenge for the Democrats as the President’s acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney reminded everybody this week once again, ‘It’s the economy, stupid.’”
Jansing turned to her guest, Politico’s chief economic correspondent Ben White, and asked him to put in context the current state of the economy.
White replied, “The economy is in pretty good shape. 263 is a very good number, better than analysts expected, which was 190,000.”
However, White then attempted to downplay the significance of the number by claiming the drop in unemployment came not from the amazing number of new jobs, but because fewer people were a part of the labor market.
“But still, overall, strong report, we are at around 200,000, or a little more than 200,000 average per month on jobs. Wages doing pretty well, 3.2 percent year on year. So you’re right, it presents a political challenge. The economy is good, it’s not fantastic, but Democrats are gonna have to make the argument for why they can make it better,” White added.
Donning her Democratic strategist hat, Jansing said, “Yeah, let’s talk about the argument they can make. Obviously, they can say this is not something Donald Trump created. We’ve been seeing this as a steady, strong economy since, what, 2009? And if you’re one of these people who has had a job for a long time, wages are flat. They can definitely point to the income disparity, the money that’s being made is going to the upper 1 percent or less.”
White agreed with each of those points and suggested that Democrats should also argue that Trump’s economy was not a “shared economy,” in that while the wealthy were getting wealthier, the middle class hadn’t done quite as well.
He further suggested that Democrats should argue that the good economic news wasn’t due to Trump’s policies and that Trump’s tax cuts had ballooned the debt and deficit.
“But they can’t talk down the economy too much, because it’s not bad,” White said.
Instead, Democrats should emulate Vice President Joe Biden and focus in on supposed “values” while attacking President Trump‘s personal shortcomings.
White added, “That’s their strongest case, is the values argument against Trump, not necessarily the economic argument.”
“Yeah, because I think what makes a lot of Democrats I talk to really nervous is that, exactly what Mick Mulvaney said, which is that people will vote for somebody they don’t like if they feel like the economy is strong, if they’re doing well,” Jansing said.
It was there that White seemed to slightly disagree with the host, and said, “The economy is not so booming and awesome and great that it overrides all of the negatives about Trump. So it’s not simply that people will say, ‘This economy is pretty good, I’m going to stick with Trump.’ There are plenty who will be like, ‘This economy’s going to stay pretty good, it’s been about the same, I’d like to make a change from this president.’”
Except, it is abundantly clear to anybody who has been paying attention that, should one of the Democratic candidates succeed in defeating Trump for the presidency in 2020, the nation’s economy will not “stay pretty good,” but will likely instead begin a stark decline, if not crash outright, at the introduction of radically different socialist policies that are antithetical to Trump’s overtly capitalist policies.
Should the economy continue to boom with successful growth under Trump’s administration, the odds will be greatly in favor of President Trump winning re-election in 2020.
That is something that even liberal MSNBC anchors like Chris Jansing have come to realize and lament. Short of a wrench being thrown in the economic machine or some sort of real and actually legitimate scandal arises to diminish Trump’s support, there is little that Democrats can do to overcome that incredible economic advantage the president will enjoy.
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