Trump’s economic message sounds a lot like Biden’s

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has twisted himself into peddling the same argument about the economy as his predecessor. And like Joe Biden, Trump is learning a hard political truth: When Americans are concerned about their cost of living, the promise of more jobs is not an antidote to the reality of higher prices.

Polls consistently show that far more Americans cite inflation than jobs as their principal economic concern. But when talking about the economy, Trump prioritises the private investment in domestic manufacturing that he says his tariff agenda has unleashed. The White House last week unveiled a website tracking what it calls the “Trump effect”, a running (if inflated) tally of investments announced since January.

“I don’t think there’s ever been anything like this anywhere in the world,” Trump insisted last week while welcoming corporate leaders who have promised big new investments. “Together … we’re going to have ‘made in the USA’ like we haven’t had before in a long time.”