In the past two weeks, good economic news has buoyed the Trump administration, providing a welcome distraction from his impeachment. Job growth in November exceeded expectations — 266,000 new jobs, unemployment down to 3.5 percent — prompting immediate speculation by commentators about the implications for President Trump’s reelection. Although not every indicator suggests that the economy is strong, most commentators thought that these job numbers helped Trump. CNN’s Chris Cillizza argued, for instance, that the numbers “make one thing very clear: President Donald Trump has a path to win a second term next year.”
There’s just one problem with such arguments: Voters aren’t giving Trump much credit for the growing economy, making his path to reelection less smooth than it otherwise should be, given the impressive statistics. CONT.
John Sides (Vanderbilt), Washington Post