Op-Ed- Trump Takes His Economic Case Back on the Road

Ben Tumulty, Ireland - Writer

On the ground in Miami, FL

Photo from Official White House Gallery

Despite an extraordinarily successful run of campaign rallies coming to a seemingly permanent end last year, MAGA is once again sending President Trump across the country.

The reason is simple: the economy has not meaningfully improved for ordinary Americans, despite multiple attempts from the current administration, which faces the Herculean task of cleaning up the previous president’s fiscal disaster.

As I settled into my seat at the America Business Forum in Miami, Florida, to hear President Trump speak, it became clear that these issues were the audience's primary concerns. One viewer told me they longed for a return to pre-COVID conditions, while another praised President Trump for all-time stock market highs.

The President gave a cracking speech, drawing laughs, cheers and standing ovations for 90 minutes, double his scheduled time. His charisma, enthusiasm and energy shone, and he pointed out that egg and oil prices have fallen. Even so, the Democrat-induced cost-of-living crisis remains punishing.

Rent is high, groceries are high, energy is volatile and – most critically – the midterms are fast approaching. By 2024, Biden and Harris’s promise of a post-COVID recovery had never truly arrived – instead, their destructive policies led to an all but economic crash, creating the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.

MAGA understands that elections are won not by spreadsheets but by lived experience. The administration has recently signed a raft of bills, including the Big Beautiful Bill, promising tax cuts and more money in the wallets of middle-and working-class Americans.

Democrats, for their part, appear determined to insult the public’s intelligence. Having spent years fueling inflation through reckless spending, regulatory overreach, and energy hostility, they now pitch a new cure-all: “affordability.” The word is everywhere, even, rather bizarrely, appearing in former Vice President Kamala Harris’s statement on the recent operation in Venezuela.

The Democrats cannot spend their way into an inflation crisis and then campaign as the firefighters. They cannot strangle domestic energy, explode deficits, flood the country with millions of illegal aliens, and then blame “corporate greed” for predictable outcomes. Voters are being asked to forget this chaos, and the coalition that carried Biden is watching prices stay high while explanations grow thinner on both sides of the political spectrum.

Trump has returned to the road, as I witnessed firsthand in Florida. He has also visited North Carolina and Pennsylvania, crucial swing states. His team wants voters to trust him more on the economy - because many remember what life felt like during his first term, when growth was real, and costs were manageable. And that is dangerous territory for the Democrats, who are now worshipping socialist ideals, “the warmth of collectivism,” and massive new government interventions.

Thirteen months on from his success at the ballot box, fatigue is growing among many Americans, some of whom fear that their voices aren’t being heard in a time of high prices and high inflation. However, there have been some encouraging signs, and by all metrics, 2026 seems to be the year that things will turn around. The President has taken huge steps to improve conditions, with new oil flowing into the United States once again and grocery prices starting to fall. He has also improved market conditions for housing prices with recent anti-corporation legislation.

During his first term, Trump presided over the best economy in decades, while Democratic governance since has been punishing and destructive. But the question is no longer who voters like more, but who can put more money in their pockets. And that is a dangerous place for both parties.

As the midterms approach, Republicans face an uneasy battle. They must continue to turn around the dire economic straits the country has faced since the Biden years and, indeed, during Trump’s first year in office.

As Bill Clinton once said, “It’s the economy, stupid.” This always sways voters in the end. It is up to the President to take his fantastic 2024 mandate and deliver on it once more, as I am confident he will.

The alternative is much worse: a new wave of ‘Democratic Socialists’ unleashing chaos on the country in 2026 and 2028. Whether or not they can be stopped remains to be seen.