Trump’s economic talking points for the State of the Union
This is performative politics again.
Voter unhappiness with inflation and the economy will play a key role in President Donald Trump‘s State of the Union address on Tuesday. Here is a look at what he might say on the economic front.
The president will work to tout jobs growth in his second administration, defend his tariff agenda, and tout declines in inflation while laying out other initiatives designed to help with cost-of-living concerns.
PROMISES TRUMP HAS KEPT, OR NOT KEPT, FROM HIS 2025 JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS SPEECH
The speech also comes in a politically critical year for Republicans and the Trump administration. The midterm elections are fast approaching and Democrats are hoping to wrest back control of the House and Senate in large part by latching onto voter discontent about the economy.
This will be an opportunity for the president to discuss his economic policy agenda ahead of the elections and explain how Republicans intend to help working- and middle-class voters. Trump is suffering from low economic approval ratings, which could possibly hurt Republicans in November and hamstring the president’s agenda.
Jobs and growth
The labor market has remained above water since Trump entered office but has not expanded as much as in more recent years. Job growth has slowed over the past year, although it did pick up in January, with 130,000 jobs added, and the unemployment rate ticked down one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.3%.
Still, there was a revision to the past year’s data showing that payroll employment was 1 million lower at the end of 2025 than previously thought.
Taken together, with the revisions in mind, the economy has added nearly 360,000 jobs since January 2025, when Trump entered office. That is positive growth, but not as much job creation as was seen in the years prior. In the comparable period in the first year of Trump’s first term, for example, the economy added more than 2 million jobs.
Economic growth is one of the strongest spots in the economy, and one that Trump will likely laud during his State of the Union address.
“GDP has been good — it was great in the third quarter, a little less so in the fourth quarter, I’d expect them to play up those numbers, because even though growth is slower than it was in 2024 it’s still holding steady,” Ryan Young, senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the Washington Examiner.
Overall, the economy grew 2.2% in 2025. Trump officials had been touting the prospects for a much stronger number …
This is performative politics again.
Voter unhappiness with inflation and the economy will play a key role in President Donald Trump‘s State of the Union address on Tuesday. Here is a look at what he might say on the economic front.
The president will work to tout jobs growth in his second administration, defend his tariff agenda, and tout declines in inflation while laying out other initiatives designed to help with cost-of-living concerns.
PROMISES TRUMP HAS KEPT, OR NOT KEPT, FROM HIS 2025 JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS SPEECH
The speech also comes in a politically critical year for Republicans and the Trump administration. The midterm elections are fast approaching and Democrats are hoping to wrest back control of the House and Senate in large part by latching onto voter discontent about the economy.
This will be an opportunity for the president to discuss his economic policy agenda ahead of the elections and explain how Republicans intend to help working- and middle-class voters. Trump is suffering from low economic approval ratings, which could possibly hurt Republicans in November and hamstring the president’s agenda.
Jobs and growth
The labor market has remained above water since Trump entered office but has not expanded as much as in more recent years. Job growth has slowed over the past year, although it did pick up in January, with 130,000 jobs added, and the unemployment rate ticked down one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.3%.
Still, there was a revision to the past year’s data showing that payroll employment was 1 million lower at the end of 2025 than previously thought.
Taken together, with the revisions in mind, the economy has added nearly 360,000 jobs since January 2025, when Trump entered office. That is positive growth, but not as much job creation as was seen in the years prior. In the comparable period in the first year of Trump’s first term, for example, the economy added more than 2 million jobs.
Economic growth is one of the strongest spots in the economy, and one that Trump will likely laud during his State of the Union address.
“GDP has been good — it was great in the third quarter, a little less so in the fourth quarter, I’d expect them to play up those numbers, because even though growth is slower than it was in 2024 it’s still holding steady,” Ryan Young, senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the Washington Examiner.
Overall, the economy grew 2.2% in 2025. Trump officials had been touting the prospects for a much stronger number …
Trump’s economic talking points for the State of the Union
This is performative politics again.
Voter unhappiness with inflation and the economy will play a key role in President Donald Trump‘s State of the Union address on Tuesday. Here is a look at what he might say on the economic front.
The president will work to tout jobs growth in his second administration, defend his tariff agenda, and tout declines in inflation while laying out other initiatives designed to help with cost-of-living concerns.
PROMISES TRUMP HAS KEPT, OR NOT KEPT, FROM HIS 2025 JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS SPEECH
The speech also comes in a politically critical year for Republicans and the Trump administration. The midterm elections are fast approaching and Democrats are hoping to wrest back control of the House and Senate in large part by latching onto voter discontent about the economy.
This will be an opportunity for the president to discuss his economic policy agenda ahead of the elections and explain how Republicans intend to help working- and middle-class voters. Trump is suffering from low economic approval ratings, which could possibly hurt Republicans in November and hamstring the president’s agenda.
Jobs and growth
The labor market has remained above water since Trump entered office but has not expanded as much as in more recent years. Job growth has slowed over the past year, although it did pick up in January, with 130,000 jobs added, and the unemployment rate ticked down one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.3%.
Still, there was a revision to the past year’s data showing that payroll employment was 1 million lower at the end of 2025 than previously thought.
Taken together, with the revisions in mind, the economy has added nearly 360,000 jobs since January 2025, when Trump entered office. That is positive growth, but not as much job creation as was seen in the years prior. In the comparable period in the first year of Trump’s first term, for example, the economy added more than 2 million jobs.
Economic growth is one of the strongest spots in the economy, and one that Trump will likely laud during his State of the Union address.
“GDP has been good — it was great in the third quarter, a little less so in the fourth quarter, I’d expect them to play up those numbers, because even though growth is slower than it was in 2024 it’s still holding steady,” Ryan Young, senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the Washington Examiner.
Overall, the economy grew 2.2% in 2025. Trump officials had been touting the prospects for a much stronger number …
