President Trump tries to refocus on the economy
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hi, this is Brian in Madison, Wisconsin. I'm sitting in the hospital room with my 44-hour-old son while his mom gets some well-earned rest in between overnight feedings. This podcast was recorded at 1.08 p.m.
on January 13, 2026.
Things may have changed by the time you hear this, but my wife and I will be tired. Okay, here's the show.
Got a real backseat baby.
I know. That is awesome. I feel like I was going to say I remember it like it was yesterday, but actually I don't. Like I have totally blocked that period out completely.
Oh, I love we have a timestamp for that. Like that little coup in the background.
I know. That was awesome.
How perfect was that?
Hey there. It's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Myles Parks. I cover voting.
I'm Deepa Shivaram. I cover the White House.
And NPR's chief economics correspondent, Scott Horsley, is also with us. Hi, Scott.
Good to be with y'all.
Great to have you. And the little one. Yes, exactly. So today we are digging into affordability, which is something that we know is something that voters care a lot about. And we're also going to be talking about Trump's ongoing feud with Fed Chair Jerome Powell. But I do want to start with today's news. President Trump is slated to give a speech in Detroit that's focused on his economic message. What more can you tell us, Deepa?
Yeah, I mean, look, this is the first time the president has kind of done an event or traveled to a place and made his remarks specifically about the economy in a minute. And just to like scale back to like a month ago about, you know, it was mid-December. A lot of polling had just come out saying that Trump's approval on the economy was like the lowest it had ever been. The NPR PBS News Marist poll said it was about 36 percent of approval on the economy, which is, I think, the lowest that that poll has ever showed.
Which is also notable because I feel like the economy is one of those things that even at times when people were mad about Trump, about everything else, the economy has always been something that voters generally trusted him on. Oh, 100 percent. Because of his business acumen.
Yeah, it's always been one of his strongest issues. So when a number dips like that, it is definitely really significant, especially because, you know, the economy and affordability and high prices and combating inflation, those are all things that he strongly campaigned on. in 2024. So that was like mid-December. Those polling numbers come out. And the president gave an Oval Office address before Christmas talking about this issue, saying that, you know, this was something his administration was working on, but he promised like an economic boom, that the U.S. economy was thriving, that it was doing so well. And there were all these projects and things that he had that were in the works, things like, you know, no taxes on tips is something he's really been touting.
He said that this spring when people get their tax refunds, they would be, you People will start feeling it in their pockets. But, you know, that doesn't necessarily resonate with voters all the time when they're still really concerned about high costs. So while the administration has been, you know, sort of bragging essentially that their economy is doing so great and so much better than the Biden administration, clearly polling shows that voters don't feel that way. So, yeah, I'm kind of curious to see how consistent his messaging on the economy will be. Will he maybe acknowledge that, yeah, people might not be feeling this in their pocketbooks, although based on how Trump has been talking about the economy and the way he believes his economy is in this great boom, probably not expecting that to happen.
And I would expect that he probably digs his heels in a little bit more in talking about how great he thinks the economy is doing.
Yeah. What does the data say, Scott, about how the economy actually is right now?
Well, the data paints a rather mixed picture. I mean, GDP, as late as the third quarter, was growing pretty rapidly. And the administration certainly expects that we're going to see another year of strong growth as those tax cuts begin to kick in in 2026.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:43
2
What is President Trump's economic message in his upcoming Detroit speech?
4:43–7:15
3
How are voters reacting to Trump's approval ratings on the economy?
7:15–8:13
4
What specific economic issues are impacting voters' perceptions?
8:13–15:47
5
What does the latest data reveal about the current state of the economy?
15:47–19:38