CNN: The Economy Is Doing Pretty Well, Just as Trump Claims.
Too Bad It's a Boomcession That Is Leaving So, So Many People Behind.

I suppose a grudging admission with lots of defensive Democrat Talking Point caveats is still an admission.

CNN Fact Check: Trump told the truth when he said the economy is solid. (But sad about the boomcession!)

President Donald Trump made a passionate defense of the US economy during his State of the Union address Tuesday night.

"Inflation is plummeting, incomes are rising fast. The roaring economy is roaring like never before."

Hyperbole aside, he's right: America's economy is strong. But Trump is missing the point.

Ah, he says the economy is strong, but he's... missing the point.

What?

Affordability, not economic strength, drives voters to the polls. Most Americans don't care a lick about GDP, CPI, PCE or any of the other acronyms or data points that show the economy is on the right track. They care about their job security and those financial fears that keep folks up at night: figuring out how to to pay for groceries, housing, health care, car payments, college and child care -- all of which keep getting more expensive.

But inflation has fallen from Biden's 10+% to 1.7% over the past three months.

As for "worrying about job security:" Americans have felt insecure about their jobs since the seventies. This is not a Trump thing. This is a secular shift in the economy that happened after the 1960s boom and continues to happen.

This hack then compares Trump to Biden -- without revealing that CNN vigorously echoed Biden's false claims of presiding over a strong economy.

"I inherited an economy that was on the brink. Now our economy is literally the envy of the world."

There's a problem with that strategy, though.

Want proof? That last quote wasn't from Tuesday's speech. That was from the 2024 State of the Union, delivered by former President Joe Biden, whose party lost the election eight months later.

Yeah but who caused the inflation? Is Trump lying that that is a hangover from Biden?

Trump's message, at least on paper, is largely correct. Jobs, wage growth, consumer spending and inflation under Trump look pretty decent or have been mostly stable. The stock market is near a record high.

"On paper," he's right. I mean, if you look at the facts.

But if you look at liberals' feeeeeeelings -- the true determinant of Truth -- then it's a different story.

The US economy grew 2.2% in 2025, very much in line with the last three years of robust economic growth. The economy slowed down more than expected at the end of the year, but the longest-ever government shutdown stymied growth that should be made back this quarter.

Last year wasn't a great year for the labor market by any stretch. But unemployment remains low, and stronger-than-expected hiring in January suggests 2026 could be a much better year for job creation.

...

Trump on Tuesday blamed Democrats for the inflation crisis that sent prices surging more than 20% during Biden's term, a shock that Americans are still adjusting to.

Oh, so Biden did cause the rampant, remorseless inflation.

But still, Trump is lying or something.

The left has another way to denigrate the strong economy, aka "the boomcession" -- it's K-shaped economy, CNN's Democrat whisperers tell them. Meaning, some are going up, like the top stroke on the K, and some are going down.

Let's ignore the fact that most see their fortunes rising -- that's what a strong economy means -- and focus on those who are remaining flat.

In fact, CNN wants you to become Junior Reporters and write to them explaining your own Tales of Boomcession Woe so that they can put those quotes together and write a downer economic story.

They're literally blegging internet randos to send them quotes they can knit together for a pre-fab story.

Where do you land in the K-shaped economy? Do you think that will change in 2026?

By Alicia Wallace
Feb 18, 2026

How do you anticipate your household financial situation will fare in 2026 and beyond? We'd like to hear from you.

There's a widening gap between the haves and the have-nots in the United States, and economists are increasingly sounding the alarm. Income inequality has expanded in a short timeframe, and various economic indicators -- including rising delinquency rates -- are flashing a warning sign.

The "K-shaped" economic recovery may be working for some Americans, but not all.

LOL.

The boomcession, don't you know.

Despite solid economic growth, booming stock values, cooling inflation and a stable unemployment rate, the economic gains have been uneven.

Economic gains are, like career trajectories, incomes, and all other individual economic situations, literally always "uneven."

Including under the Democrats' preferred economic system, communism.

Economic readings are aggregate measures of all economic activity. It's like taking the temperature of a room, defined (scientifically) as "the average kinetic energy of all molecules in a system." Some molecules will have a great deal more kinetic energy and some a great deal less -- but that doesn't change what the actual temperature is. The average remains the average.

CNN now argues "let's stop talking about the average, like we've always talked about with regard to economics, and just focus on the left-wingers who can't get a job in pretty much any economy because they're stupid and mentally ill."

What spur of the "K" do you feel like you're on, and do you see that changing as this year progresses?

As you reflect on how you're navigating this economy, how do you anticipate your household financial situation will fare in 2026 and beyond? If you'd be willing to share your experience with a CNN reporter for possible inclusion in an upcoming story, we'd like to hear from you.

It's like they're school teachers asking you for an essay about your Sad Stories of Economic Failure.

Fuck you.

Meanwhile, Politico also bemoans the very good economic news. Or, at least, they refuse to credit it as good economic news.

Byron York
@ByronYork
Speaking of tariffs, this is very good news, isn't it? From Politico: "President Trump's tariffs...remade trade in 2025, and no country experienced as big a shift as China. Thanks in large part to US tariffs...[China's] share of the overall US import market fell to 9% in 2025, compared to 13.4 % in 2024...That is China's lowest market share since the early 2000s. Less than a decade ago, China accounted for one-fifth of annual US imports."

'China is falling across the board': How the US is moving away from Chinese imports

Chinese goods now comprise less than 10 percent of U.S. imports.

By Doug Palmer and Paroma Soni0

President Donald Trump's historic tariffs, some of which the Supreme Court struck down Friday, remade trade in 2025 -- and no country experienced as big a shift as China.

Thanks in large part to U.S. tariffs that at one point reached triple digits, the Asian manufacturing powerhouse's share of the overall U.S. import market fell to 9 percent in 2025, compared to 13.4 percent in 2024, according to the Commerce Department's trade report for December released Thursday.

That is China's lowest market share since the early 2000s. Less than a decade ago, China accounted for one-fifth of annual U.S. imports.

U.S. imports from China fell to $308 billion in 2025, their lowest level since 2009 and a drop of more than 42 percent from the record high of $539 billion in 2018.

Factoring all the tariffs Trump announced last year, as well as the rollbacks he granted, Chinese goods faced an "effective" U.S. tariff rate of 30.9 percent in November, according to Olu Sonola, head of U.S. economic research at Fitch Ratings in New York, and his colleague Sarah Repucci. This included, but was not limited to, Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down.

Comparatively, the effective tariff rate was 19.7 percent for India, 12.7 percent for Vietnam, 8.1 percent for the European Union, 4.2 percent for Mexico, 3.7 percent for Canada and 3.5 percent for Taiwan, according to Fitch Ratings' calculations.

"Basically what's happening is as China is falling across the board, many Asian countries are increasing their share of U.S. imports," Sonola told POLITICO, adding that Vietnam, Taiwan, Mexico and India were among the biggest beneficiaries.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:42 PM

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