A note for supporters of President Trump

As President Trump shocked his supporters by initially putting the kibosh on the Jeffery Epstein case, there is another thing that is far more important for his and his party's fortunes in future elections.  He must improve the economy - for the average American.  

I'm not one who says he's been in office six months and hasn't ended sin in the world so I'm out of here.  I'm old enough to remember the horrible 1982 Recession, when the press and Democrats jumped all over President Reagan, saying it's because of him that our economy was on the brink of ruin.  

Then things cleared, the economy rebounded, and we entered into a stretch of huge growth across the board.  Growth that a large swath of America happily enjoyed (including those who criticized the excess of the day).  Hence the 1984 landslide happened - and GHW Bush coasted into his first term on Reagan's coattails.  Because that Recession blip turned out to be a blip.  And we saw overall growth and improvements for the bulk of the population, in addition to a couple other significant accomplishments on the part of the Reagan administration. 

Something the Democrats/Press missed in 2016, and again in 2024.  At the end of the day, you can have everything in your pocket, but in a democratic society, you have to produce.  You have to show results.  You can't lie or deny your way out of it.  The same here with a president the media doesn't support. Despite the media's hysterics, the economy hasn't collapsed and prices haven't skyrocketed through the ceiling because of President Trump.  Which is good.

But things haven't really improved either.  And they were bad these last several years.  Very, very bad.  The post-truth media, having perfected the art of ignoring the screams of a million dying innocents if they can't be exploited, thought it could  pour a ton of manure on the economic news hoping that something beautiful would grow.  But funny thing about people.  They'll believe a lot, but not that things are fine when they're suffering as a result of them not being fine. 

Because of the press's antics, however, it's easy to forget just how bad things were these last few years.  But now the pilot of the good plane America is President Trump.  And while he has only been in office six months, he has been in office six months.  Much of what he has done appears to be impacting vast, social, national and international long term issues and, as during the Biden administration, Wall Street as good as always.  Fair enough.

But by next year, people like me and tens of millions of others better see things improve.  We better see either the results of the staggeringly disastrous inflation under Biden reduced if not eliminated, or see incomes or wages or benefits skyrocket or something.  At the end of the day, for every other topic that drove voters into the booth last November, it was - to quote the sage - the economy stupid.  And rightly so.  Not since the 2008 collapse have I seen it so bad, only this time the press was insisting there was nothing to see and thus being no help.

But things were, and are, very bad for very many millions of Americans.   Of course, just like telling people things aren't bad when they are, people will also know they're good no matter how much the bad is focused on.  See the 1984 election, when so much media emphasis was on all those failing to benefit from the improvements.  People know when things are better.  But President Trump has a limit to how long it can go without the average American voter seeing things improve.  I'd say by the midterms there better be something to grab onto, don't expect them to go well for President Trump or the GOP.