https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/20...onomy-roaring-will-it-carry-him-2020-n1001691
WASHINGTON — There's really only one word — "boom!" — to describe the economic picture surrounding President Donald Trump 18 months away from the 2020 election.
On Friday, the Labor Department announced that the economy added 263,000 jobs and hourly wages grew by two-tenths of a percent in April. The unemployment rate — 3.6 percent — is at its lowest level since December 1969, before the births of nine of the Democrats running for his job.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average index of top stocks has been hovering near its record high in recent days, gross domestic product rose by 3.2 percent in the first quarter, and while some Democratic candidates are making the case that income inequality means that most Americans aren't feeling real benefits from the big numbers, that message is competing both with the broader figures and other topics.
Trump's allies see a president who is competently leading the country in the right direction on jobs and the economy, the issues that typically matter most to voters, and a Democratic Party arguing for a 180-degree pivot at its own peril.
"While Democrats are turning toward socialism and are wasting time attacking the president, the American economy is booming due to President Trump's tax cuts and deregulatory policies," said Boris Epshteyn, the chief political commentator for Sinclair Broadcast Group and a former special assistant to Trump in the White House.
"Fifty-year low unemployment, over 3 percent GDP growth, and a strong rise in wages are resulting in the over 55 percent approval rating for the president on the economy," he said in a text exchange with NBC News. "Going into 2020, the Trump economy is putting Democrats in an impossible position of trying to come up with ways they could do better."
