Rupert Murdoch’s flagship business newspaper says Donald Trump has his work cut out persuading Americans that a new “golden age” is just around the corner.
In the latest salvo from its editorial board, the Wall Street Journal noted that the latest Labor Department figures showing inflation falling to 2.7 percent in the year to November, down from an estimated 3 percent, offer the president a “glimpse of sunshine” as he tries to convince voters the economy is in good shape.
But tens of millions of Americans struggling with a cost-of-living crisis are still likely to be concerned that real hourly earnings have increased by only 0.8 percent over the past year, which it says “isn’t a golden age.” “Paychecks are barely keeping pace with rising costs,” the board says, and inflation will have to fall “further and faster” if Republicans are to avoid an electoral wipeout in the 2026 midterms.
“Mr. Trump boasted about a decline in egg prices (-13.2 percent), but they had been artificially high because of the bird flu,” the board wrote in its latest opinion page offering.
“Americans are still seeing price increases for items they regularly consume, including electricity (6.9 percent), household furnishings and operations (4.6 percent), medical care services (3.3 percent), and food (2.6 percent). A Fox News poll this week found that 72 percent of Americans rate the economy as fair or poor—essentially unchanged from when Trump entered office.
“Mr. Trump is right that he inherited the inflation mess from Joe Biden, but Americans don’t feel that their situation is improving,” the board added. “Job growth has stalled since the spring, and more important, incomes after inflation haven’t been rising fast enough.”
For months, Trump has been recording dire approval ratings as millions of Americans feel he has failed to follow through on his 2024 campaign promises to immediately lower food prices and improve the economy.
The president has even had the audacity to routinely brush aside affordability concerns as a “con job” and a “hoax” orchestrated by Democrats.
The issue became so dire that Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, pushed the president to deliver a primetime address to the nation on Wednesday in a desperate bid to convince Americans his economic plans are working.
Instead, the 18-minute speech amounted to the 79-year-old president frantically stringing together misleading boasts about the economy, while simultaneously insisting that any financial pain Americans feel is entirely Joe Biden’s fault.
The Journal’s editorial board also warned that the administration’s hardline mass deportation plans will do nothing to ease economic pressures during Trump’s second term.
“JD Vance says restricting immigration will raise wages for American workers, but there’s little evidence this is happening,” the board wrote.
“Deporting busboys and hotel workers won’t make Americans feel richer. Nor will Mr. Trump telling voters they’ve never had it so good. Americans will start to feel better when they get a raise that isn’t washed away by inflation.”
The Journal’s editorial board has regularly criticized Trump for his economic policy, especially his obsession with import tariffs. Last week it slammed his decision to allow the export of powerful AI chips to China in return for a cut of the revenue as the worst deal since indigenous Indians gave up Manhattan Island in 1626.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
