Instead, the president is repeatedly muddling that message with easily debunked falsehoods or hyperbole about the state of the economy while pressing on with unpopular trade wars that frustrate establishment Republicans and business groups worried about price increases. His undisciplined approach — coupled with his obsessing about the Russia investigation, Hillary Clinton and the 2016 election — is damaging what many Republicans say should have been a political slam dunk for the GOP heading into the fall.
The result is that one of the White House’s most critical projects for the midterm elections — getting Americans to credit Trump and the party with a hot economy — is in danger of failing.
“The economy is the admission ticket for Republicans,” said Josh Holmes, former chief of staff to Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s majority leader. “But it is clearly not the only thing that matters, and in a news cycle increasingly driven by the president, an awful lot of new things are entering the lexicon of everyday Americans.”
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