This is the Dec. 18 edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
Donald Trump should try something new: trusting Americans with the truth.
In his frantic, rambling speech last night, the president of the United States attempted to convince Americans that the state of the economy was good. He kept blaming former President Joe Biden for an economy he has owned now for almost a year.
The American people aren’t buying it anymore.
Jon Meacham explained on “Morning Joe” how statesmen like Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt told their voters when bad times were ahead. FDR famously said during World War II that things were going to get worse before they got better. Both wartime leaders survived tough political times because they trusted their people with the truth.
Not Donald Trump.
The president continues to give himself an A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus grade on the economy while pretending that the U.S. economy is better than it’s ever been.
Americans don’t believe it, for good reason. Only 31% of Americans tell AP-NORC they approve of Trump’s handling of the economy.
He should try a different approach.
When I first ran for reelection in 1996, I was attacked for cutting Medicare’s rate of growth. Republicans got pounded at the ballot box that year because of the Medicare issue. But I won in a landslide. How? I told seniors the truth.
After being attacked over the issue in the campaign’s first debate, I announced that I would make Medicare the centerpiece of my reelection campaign. In all future speeches and debates, I ignored questions on a range of topics and kept going back to Medicare, explaining that the health care fund’s trustees said the program would go bankrupt in seven years if nothing was done.
When others were running away from the issue, I ran straight toward the political attacks and fought my opponent on his ground.
The Friday before the election, Glen Bolger with Public Opinion Strategies called me up to ask what exactly I was saying on the campaign trail to senior citizens.
“Why?” I asked nervously.
Glen responded that he was going over my polling numbers and that I had the highest approval rating with senior citizens among any Republican representatives running that year.
I laughed. “I told them the truth. I told them why we had to cut Medicare.”
My takeaway was simple: Trust voters with the truth. They can handle it, and you will be rewarded for giving the bad news up front.
It’s a shame the president refuses to do the same.
“Telling voters not to believe their own lying checkbooks was politically insane. Mr. Trump is doing the same thing.”
–
Karl Rove, former adviser to President George W. Bush
Americans are not buying what the president is selling them on the economy. Despite his claim that the U.S. economy is stronger than ever, Americans strongly disapprove of his approach.
SOURCE: NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, NPR/PBS News/Marist poll
EXTRA HOT TEA
In his first 50 days back in office, Donald Trump mentioned Joe Biden an average of 6.32 times per day, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
At last week’s Cabinet meeting — notable mainly for the current president’s visible struggle to stay awake — Trump managed to speak about Biden eight times in 20 minutes, the Times found.
The fixation hasn’t faded. More than 300 days into Trump’s second term, Biden still seems to be living rent-free in Trump’s head. As Willie Nelson might sing, “he’s always on my mind.”
“DWELLING IN A FOOL’S PARADISE”
A conversation with Jon Meacham
President Trump’s prime-time address on the economy yesterday leaned heavily on reassurance, landing as inflation remains stubborn and his poll numbers continue to slide. I turned to historian and presidential biographer Jon Meacham to discuss the speech and an unsettling question: What happens when a president starts believing his own version of events?
JS: The president refused to acknowledge the economic problems many Americans are facing. That’s in stark contrast to, say, Winston Churchill’s brutal honesty with the British people during World War II.
JM: Churchill gave a great speech in January of 1942, when he was facing a vote of confidence in the House of Commons. We now think of Churchill only in a Hollywood way, but he had domestic political problems because the British people were getting impatient with the war effort.
JS: What did Churchill do?
JM: He observed that the British people could face any misfortune with fortitude and buoyancy as long as they were convinced that those in charge of their affairs were not deceiving them — or dwelling in a fool’s paradise. They wanted to be sure that the leader wasn’t telling himself a fairy tale.
JS: Didn’t FDR do the same during the war?
JM: Yes. FDR said on Washington’s Birthday in 1942 that the news is going to get worse and worse before it gets better and better. And FDR said the American people deserve to have it straight from the shoulder. If you think about it, presidents who have usually gotten in political trouble were the ones who thought they could put one past us.
JS: Give our readers an example.
JM: It’s an elemental way of thinking about it — whether it’s President [Lyndon] Johnson in Vietnam or presidents in previous eras who wanted to say the economy was better than it actually was.
I think part of what you’re seeing with President Trump’s low numbers is a disconnect from Americans. Look at the walls of the colonnade, where John and Robert Kennedy walked and thought about how to save the world from Armageddon. It is now a “Walk of Fame” authored by President Trump, and a solipsism and an egotism that, even by presidential standards, is fueling a phenomenon that may actually be something that endures in this era.
JS: In what ways?
JM: Most of the political norms and rules we have talked about through the years have been repealed. But every day that goes by, President Trump’s interests diverge a little bit more from those of any Republicans who are going to be on the ballot next year.
And that’s simply a function of the clock. The one thing President Trump can’t repeal is time itself. And I just wonder, when members of Congress go home, when the representatives hear from their constituents and, most important, when they begin to see in their internal polling where President Trump’s numbers are going, whether that will finally begin to stoke a little bit of convenient courage.
This interview has been condensed and edited for brevity and clarity.
7 STATEMENTS FROM THE PRESIDENT’S SPEECH – AND WHAT THE DATA ACTUALLY SHOWS
ON GAS PRICES
THE CLAIM: “Gasoline is now under $2.50 a gallon in much of the country. In some states, it … just hit $1.99.”
THE CHECK: According to AAA, the national average is about $2.90 per gallon. No state currently has an average gas price of $1.99, and only a small handful of states are below $2.50.
ON INFLATION
THE CLAIM: “When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years — maybe even in the history of our country.”
THE CHECK: Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, the highest level since 1981 — not 48 years, and far below inflation levels reached at several points in U.S. history.
ON A BORDER “INVASION”
THE CLAIM: “Our country was being invaded by an army of 25 million people.”
THE CHECK: U.S. Customs and Border Protection says only 10.2 million people crossed the border without documentation during the Biden administration. There is no evidence supporting the 25 million figure.
ON “RECORD-BREAKING” INVESTMENT
THE CLAIM: “Already, I’ve secured a record-breaking $18 trillion of investment into the United States.”
THE CLAIM: The White House itself cites a much lower figure — about $9.6 trillion — which includes investment commitments made before Trump took office.
ON THANKSGIVING TURKEY
AND EGGS
THE CLAIM: “The price of a Thanksgiving turkey was down 33% compared to last year. The price of eggs is down 82% since March, and everything else is falling rapidly.”
THE CHECK: Retail turkey prices fell about 16%. Wholesale egg prices dropped more than 80%, but retail egg prices fell closer to 44%. Overall prices continue to rise, with the Consumer Price Index up about 3%.
ON AMERICAN WALLETS AND BANK ACCOUNTS
THE CLAIM: “You’re going to see more cash in your wallets and in your bank accounts.”
THE CHECK: According to the Yale Budget Lab, Trump’s proposed tariff policies could cost the average household about $1,700 per year.
ON PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES
THE CLAIM: “I negotiated directly … to slash prices on drugs and pharmaceuticals by as much as 400, 500 and even 600%.”
THE CHECK: Such reductions are mathematically impossible. A 100% reduction would make drugs free. Anything beyond that would imply consumers are being paid to take them.
ONE MORE SHOT
Dec. 18 marked the end of the Battle of Verdun in World War I. The battle was one of the deadliest in human history, causing more than 700,000 casualties. Total losses in the Verdun area exceeded 1 million over the course of the war.
CATCH UP ON MORNING JOE
SPILL IT!
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Former Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., is co-host of MS NOW's "Morning Joe" alongside Mika Brzezinski — a show that Time magazine calls "revolutionary." In addition to his career in television, Joe is a two-time New York Times best-selling author. His most recent book is "The Right Path: From Ike to Reagan, How Republicans Once Mastered Politics — and Can Again."