Trump wants GOP to focus more on his economic achievements. But he’s often changing the subject.

By Kevin Liptak, CNN

Miami (CNN) — President Donald Trump spent the morning after a terrible election night for Republicans publicly processing the results, and arrived at several conclusions.

First, he determined his party was losing the messaging battle over the now-record-length government shutdown, and told GOP senators so in no uncertain terms over coffee and orange juice in the State Dining Room.

Second, he adopted the view that any election where he’s not on the ballot will be a struggle for his party, notwithstanding the fact he’s unlikely to appear on a ballot ever again.

And third, he deemed his party just too quiet about the economic accomplishments of his term so far, including how many new factories are being built or jobs being created.

“I tell Republicans, you want to win elections, you got to talk about these facts,” he told a financial conference in Miami, where he flew after his breakfast session with senators. “You know, it’s really easy to win elections when you talk about the facts.”

In determining Republicans have been insufficient in their promotion of his policy accomplishments, Trump arrived at the same conclusion many presidents before him have when confronted with stiff political headwinds. If only the people knew what he was doing, the thinking goes, the political blessings will follow.

“It doesn’t just happen. You have to tell them,” Trump said in his speech, sounding a little like Joe Biden bemoaning how no one understood his sweeping economic agenda or Barack Obama regretting not better explaining the Affordable Care Act.

But it can often be Trump himself obscuring his policy achievements. Even in his speech Wednesday — billed as a “major economic address” on the one-year anniversary of his 2024 victory — Trump meandered well outside the economic realm.

Among the topics touched on: transgender weightlifters, the teleprompter that malfunctioned at the United Nations six weeks ago, his decision to rename Denali to Mount McKinley, whether South Africa should remain a member of the G20, the liquid wealth held by Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, and the time he worked a drive-thru window at McDonald’s during last year’s campaign.

“I guess there’s something about McDonald’s, right?” he reflected.

Indeed, it was the election that took place 365 days ago that received far more time in Wednesday’s speech than the vote that occurred a day earlier. Trump was in a nostalgic mood, perhaps because the results this week were vastly more disappointing for the GOP than those a year ago.

“On November 5, 2024, the American people reclaimed our government, we restored our sovereignty – we lost a little bit of sovereignty last night in New York, but we’ll take care of it,” Trump said at the start of his address, referring to the success of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. “Don’t worry about it.”

Trump did test drive a new political construction that seems destined to reappear after the the democratic socialist’s victory.

“We have a choice between communism and common sense,” he said. “Does that make sense to you?” In all, Trump said the words “communist” or “communism” 14 times in his speech, while naming Mamdani only once.

Still, for all his barbed attacks on Democrats’ economic policies, Trump encouraging his fellow Republicans to focus more on the economy seemed an acknowledgment, however tacit, that the longtime edge he and the GOP have long held on economic matters has mostly disappeared.

“They have this new word called affordability, and they don’t talk about it enough. The Democrats did. And the Democrats make it up – because we took over a mess. … As a Republican, you have to let people know that,” he told Fox News’ Bret Baier in an interview later Wednesday.

Winning Democratic candidates in New Jersey, Virginia and New York all made the cost of living central to their campaigns, holding out Trump’s policies as a reason why things like groceries and electricity are becoming more expensive, despite his promises of an economic turnaround.

Trump’s aides have signaled that economic issues will be central for the president ahead of critical midterm elections that will determine the balance of power in Congress for the remainder of his term.

“The president is very keyed into what’s going on, and he recognizes, like anybody, that it takes time to do an economic turnaround, but all the fundamentals are there, and I think you’ll see him be very, very focused on prices and cost of living,” James Blair, the political director for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and now a deputy White House chief of staff, told Politico on Wednesday.

In Trump’s first nine months, economic matters have not always been at the center of his agenda. He has spent an outsized amount of time on foreign affairs, sometimes meeting multiple world leaders at the White House per week and working to broker peace agreements (his count is seven or eight).

He’s also been focused on his White House renovations, including during the shutdown, by tearing down the East Wing to make way for a 90,000 square-foot ballroom, renovating a guest bathroom in the residence and covering the Oval Office in gold fixtures. Trump often talks about his projects as major successes of his presidency so far.

When he does discuss the economy, Trump can sometimes sound dismissive of ongoing cost-of-living concerns. He has insisted there is no inflation when there is. And he insists grocery prices are down when they’re up. And he’s kept up his own travel and golf schedule during a shutdown that’s snarled airline travel and slowed food stamp benefits for millions of Americans.

Denying economic realities that people are experiencing in their everyday lives is a political pitfall Democrats have been eager to seize upon, particularly as polls show Americans souring on Trump’s economic performance.

A CNN survey this week showed Americans broadly dissatisfied with the state of the country — 68% said things are going badly — and the economy, with 72% saying it’s in poor shape, and 47% calling the economy and cost of living the top issue facing the US. About 6 in 10 (61%) said Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions in the US.

How much Trump can shift his economic messaging over the next year remains to be seen. What is clear is that his fellow Republicans, who mostly avoided pointing any fingers in Trump’s direction after Tuesday’s losses, will be relying on him and his political impulses to avoid another decisive defeat.

“He is, in a very real sense, on the ballot. He’s fiercely committed to us winning. He is going to help,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said on the steps of the Capitol. He said he’d received assurances in private from Trump that he would take an active role in campaigning ahead of the midterms.

“He’s offered to do rallies and the tele-town halls and all the things,” Johnson said, adding later: “He is very much engaged, very dialed in, and he understands the stakes. President Trump is on the ballot in 2026, and we’re looking forward to that contest.”

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