President Donald Trump’s prime time speech to the American people Wednesday night was everything his supporters might have wanted — and everything his detractors might have expected.
Delivered undoubtedly to combat the Democrats’ overblown “affordability” theme they hope to use against Republicans in 2026, the president sought to tout how 2026 was on tap to have “an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen.”
Trump is still somewhat in comfortable territory in dumping any economic concerns about his inherited “mess” from the Biden administration. Inflation has come down from Biden-era highs (but very little of that drop happened during Trump’s 11 months in office). The Southern border has been secured. A relative peace has been brokered in the Gaza-Israel war.
But the Biden excuse is good only for so long and certainly won’t be valid when people go to the polls 11 months from now.
However, if Trump’s expectations of an economic boom in 2026 are realized, he could stave off the usual trend that favors the party not in power. That rarely happens, though.