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Trump admin telling people what they're experiencing economically 'isn't real' · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: New jobs numbers out this morning, and they really don't
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  Speaker 1: square with the economic golden age that President Trump keeps
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: touting and talking about. The US economy lost twenty three
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  Speaker 1: thousand jobs last month, the final count for May and
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  Speaker 1: June were revised down too, and the labor force participation rate,
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  Speaker 1: the number of people working or looking for a job,
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  Speaker 1: felt to nearly sixty one and a half percent, the
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  Speaker 1: lowest in more than five years. Those are tough numbers
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  Speaker 1: for a president campaigning on an economy that he claims
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  Speaker 1: is better than ever. But as usual, the White House
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  Speaker 1: doesn't seem too concerned, the spokesman saying in a statement quote,
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  Speaker 1: the Trump industrial resurgence is on schedule. Where's the schedule?
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  Speaker 1: And then there was White House Economic Advisor Kevin Hassett
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  Speaker 1: saying this just a short while ago.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the momentum in the economy continues to be straw.
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  Speaker 2: We remain very bullish even when there's a number like
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  Speaker 2: today that we.
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  Speaker 3: Think is temporarily the respect.
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  Speaker 2: For more.
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  Speaker 1: I want to bring in Neil Orwin, Axios chief economic correspondent,
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  Speaker 1: Stuart Stevens, Senior advisor to the Lincoln Project, and former
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  Speaker 1: Mitt Romney twenty twelve campaign chief, and Julie Ragenski is
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  Speaker 1: here on set with me, democratic strategist and author of
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  Speaker 1: the Salty Politics newsletter, Neil, I'll go to you, as
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  Speaker 1: is the econ pro among us. What do you make
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  Speaker 1: of how the White House is selling this report right
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  Speaker 1: now and square it with the golden age language that
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  Speaker 1: the president is using on the campaign trail.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, they have a point that the numbers are
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  Speaker 3: probably not quite as bad as the headline suggests. So
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  Speaker 3: twenty three thousand jobs lost last month, but fifty thousand
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  Speaker 3: losses were in local education, which seems like it's a
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  Speaker 3: seasonal adjustment kind of technical problem. Those will probably come
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  Speaker 3: back in the next month. At the same time, the
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  Speaker 3: underlying story is not ideal. You know, we've seen a
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  Speaker 3: real deceleration in job growth in the last over this
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  Speaker 3: course the summer. We've not seen the kind of rapid
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  Speaker 3: job growth you'd like to see in a booming economy.
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  Speaker 3: And look, there are plenty of good things happening in
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  Speaker 3: the US economy right now, but you're right, there is
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  Speaker 3: this underbelly of weakness where companies don't want to hire.
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  Speaker 3: The people have a job, can have a decent job,
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  Speaker 3: but people who are looking or are having a hard time,
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  Speaker 3: and that comes across in a wide range of data,
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  Speaker 3: not just the one the pieces that came out this morning.
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  Speaker 1: I also think, Stuart, there is this underlying idea of
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  Speaker 1: people are saying, regardless of what the actual metrics look like,
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  Speaker 1: they are saying that they are hurting in this economy.
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  Speaker 1: And so before we play voters talking about that because
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  Speaker 1: we have new sound of it, and frankly I hear
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  Speaker 1: it when I go on the campaign trail as well.
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  Speaker 1: What is the way that this White House should be
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  Speaker 1: talking about that, holding space for the fact that maybe
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  Speaker 1: the economy is not in the worst place ever, but
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  Speaker 1: also that it is not in the Golden Age, and
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  Speaker 1: that voters don't feel that it is.
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  Speaker 2: Well. I think meeting voters where they are is always
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  Speaker 2: a good thing in campaigns. The problem Republicans have is
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  Speaker 2: that Trump doesn't allow you to do it a normal
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  Speaker 2: sort of political move here. So exactly what you're saying said, Look,
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  Speaker 2: I think we're making some headroom here, but look, things
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  Speaker 2: aren't what they should be. Gas processes or too much.
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  Speaker 2: Everything costs too much. We had helped the lower prices more,
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  Speaker 2: but there's been a lot of complicated issues out there
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  Speaker 2: that have stopped us from doing that, But we're working
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  Speaker 2: really hard. Those words have just never come out of
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  Speaker 2: Donald Trump's mouth, so it's really difficult for it to
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  Speaker 2: come out of Republican's mouth. You can't tell people what
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  Speaker 2: you are experiencing is not real. You can't. And a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people are like, you know, turning into Kevin Hapsers.
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  Speaker 2: They say, well, how should I feel? No, I mean
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  Speaker 2: it's like, you go out, what are you paying for
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  Speaker 2: and what it is? You know, they're not going to
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  Speaker 2: be saying, well, look, fifty thousand of these are just educational.
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  Speaker 2: It's a seasonal adjustment and I don't mind paying ninety
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  Speaker 2: dollars to fill up my gas tank. It's a terrible position.
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  Speaker 2: And the last numbers I saw something like, you know,
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  Speaker 2: under thirty percent. Thought of the economy is going in
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  Speaker 2: the right direction, and hire with independence and obviously hire
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  Speaker 2: with Democrats. So that ain't a great place to be.
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  Speaker 1: In, no, especially given the fact that this was an
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  Speaker 1: issue that Trump used to solidly lead and win on Julie.
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  Speaker 1: Before we pivot back to the politics, there are Trump
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  Speaker 1: voters that our colleagues have spoken to this week about
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  Speaker 1: what they are experiencing on the economy. Listen to some
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  Speaker 1: of that.
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  Speaker 3: You can't say, now every dollar you have has to
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  Speaker 3: go to gas, grocery bills, rent, The economy is terrible,
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  Speaker 3: and our leadership is not as good as it used
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  Speaker 3: to be. He's more doing for him than he.
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  Speaker 2: Is for the people.
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  Speaker 1: He's saying he's doing more for them than the people,
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  Speaker 1: And I mean, this is I think Trump voters lately
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  Speaker 1: reckoning with the fact that the policies and the focuses
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  Speaker 1: are not where they taught they thought they were going
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  Speaker 1: to be when they voted for this president.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I mean, I don't know what they expected. They
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  Speaker 4: saw this movie before the first time around. But look,
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  Speaker 4: when you have headlines coming out of the White House
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  Speaker 4: and the president wants to spend taxpayer dollars building an
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  Speaker 4: ARC to Trump when you're talking about building a ballroom
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  Speaker 4: that he claims he needs so he could throw a
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  Speaker 4: White House Correspondence Center party in his own house, which
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  Speaker 4: he assumes the White House is not the people's house.
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  Speaker 4: When you see an IRS that's been weaponized and a
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  Speaker 4: Justice Department that's been weaponized to let him off the hook,
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  Speaker 4: and not paying his fair share of taxes, well, the
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  Speaker 4: rest of us have to do it. People might come
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  Speaker 4: around to the thought that this is not a president
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  Speaker 4: who's working for them but working for himself over and
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  Speaker 4: over and over and over again. You can't gaslight people
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  Speaker 4: about what they're paying. To Stuart's point, when you go
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  Speaker 4: to the store, you know what you're paying. You know
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  Speaker 4: what you're paid before, you know what you're paying now,
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  Speaker 4: and you're filling up your gas tank. It doesn't matter
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  Speaker 4: how many times Kevin Hassett has trotted out there to
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  Speaker 4: say life is great and the economy is doing well
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  Speaker 4: when you're the one filling up your gas tank and
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  Speaker 4: you have a limited amount of money with which to
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  Speaker 4: fill it, and you can't do it when you have
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  Speaker 4: to buy back to school clothes for your kids and
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  Speaker 4: you realize that tariffs are killing you with respect to
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  Speaker 4: what you have to pay a few years ago versus now.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, all of these clothes are coming from somewhere,
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  Speaker 4: They're not necessarily made here. They're paying more to send
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  Speaker 4: their kids back to school. So all of this is
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  Speaker 4: just reality. And the one thing I know with voters
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  Speaker 4: all the campaigns I've ever done, is, as Stuart said,
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  Speaker 4: you have to meet them where they are. But more importantly,
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  Speaker 4: you can't condescend to them. You can't treat them like morons.
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  Speaker 4: Nobody likes to be treated like a dope, and that's
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  Speaker 4: what they're basically doing. They're basically telling voters, don't believe
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  Speaker 4: you're lying. Eyes believe us everything that they're doing to
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  Speaker 4: enrich themselves, after what they're doing to have Katar give
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  Speaker 4: them a private jet, right after they're having the Trump
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  Speaker 4: administer of the Trump Organization making ten billion dollars in
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  Speaker 4: the Middle East, After all of that, and the way
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  Speaker 4: that they're getting richer off the taxpayers, all of their
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  Speaker 4: positioning of being in the White House versus what we're
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  Speaker 4: all having to pay, the rest of us having to pay,
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  Speaker 4: it's insulting.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think the corruption rides right alongside the economic
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  Speaker 1: policy in the minds of voters. But Stuart, there is
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  Speaker 1: the messaging out of the White House, and then there's
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  Speaker 1: the messaging from some Republicans. One in particular has gotten
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  Speaker 1: some attention this week Congressman Dan Crenshaw. He wrote in
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  Speaker 1: a post on x responding to someone talking about the
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  Speaker 1: high price of burritos, where he said, this is his words,
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  Speaker 1: stop whining, get a job, eat Ramen like the rest
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  Speaker 1: of us did in college on a budget with four roommates.
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  Speaker 1: The market doesn't care what you think something should cost.
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  Speaker 1: Only communists care. He later apologized for that exchange, But
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  Speaker 1: I think it begs the question, like, not only are
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  Speaker 1: they saying let them meet Ramen, they're also saying that
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  Speaker 1: anyone who wants a proactive approach to taking down prices
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  Speaker 1: is a communist. I mean, like that, how does that track?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? I love the fact that my old party was
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  Speaker 2: all free enterprise and now we're nationalizing intel. Yeah, that's great, guys.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, look, I think that the reason somebody
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  Speaker 2: does this, this says it's kind of outragous stuff on
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  Speaker 2: social media is to rise in Trump's circle. Because to
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  Speaker 2: rise in the Republican Party now is to be the
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  Speaker 2: most transgressive. So instead of empathy, instead of saying, look,
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  Speaker 2: I know this is bad, we got to do something.
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  Speaker 2: It's like, you don't know what you're talking about. The
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  Speaker 2: President's right, and the president somebody in this staff reads that,
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  Speaker 2: and you get a call and you've gone up in
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  Speaker 2: the Republican hierarchy. And that's what I say. You know,
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  Speaker 2: the Republican Party is really functioning in a political science sense,
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  Speaker 2: more like an extremist movement than a typical American traditional party,
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  Speaker 2: because what do we know about extremist movements, They only
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  Speaker 2: become more extreme with a higher and higher purity test.
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  Speaker 2: This is how you end up with the Vice President
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  Speaker 2: United States defending Nazis and telling people, well, look, you
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  Speaker 2: don't know what you're really experiencing, we'll tell you, which
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  Speaker 2: is very North Korean and I don't know. I wouldn't
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  Speaker 2: want to be a Republican candidate November.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and Crenshaw also lost his primary too, so I
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  Speaker 1: guess the political stakes slightly less for him, but still
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  Speaker 1: not a great look as a Republican to be saying
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  Speaker 1: this before the midterms, Neil very quickly to you, does
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  Speaker 1: this make Kevin Worsh's job harder with a president who
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  Speaker 1: wants rates to be cut, the FED likely to keep
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  Speaker 1: them flat, but also these economic indicators feeding into that.
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  Speaker 3: Decision, Well, it does in the sense that this softer
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  Speaker 3: labor market report suggests they may not need to raise
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  Speaker 3: rates as much as as people have thought going into
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  Speaker 3: the fall, So it gives a little more room to
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  Speaker 3: maneuver and a little more room to you know, if
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  Speaker 3: the labor market's not as strong as we thought. Maybe
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  Speaker 3: you don't need to raise rates like some people on
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  Speaker 3: the FED board would like to see. At the same time,
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  Speaker 3: and wors's a very tricky spot right now. You know,
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  Speaker 3: inflation is too high, It's been too high for five years,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, what do you do about it? If
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  Speaker 3: you're the fat and you have a president who is
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  Speaker 3: really going to go after you, if you do the
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  Speaker 3: normal econ one on one response, which is raise rates.
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  Speaker 3: So this probably puts the Paul's break on rape hikes
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  Speaker 3: at least for the moment, but a lot of information
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  Speaker 3: to come in on inflation, what they might do in
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  Speaker 3: the next few months.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, in the next few months, of course, getting us
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  Speaker 1: closer to the mid terms. Bil Erwin, Julie Riginski, thank
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  Speaker 1: you both for joining us. Stewart, please stick around.