More from the analysis ...
... Why it matters: It might. Trump knows that nothing matters more than economic issues. That makes the next 71 days a battle to convince voters their wallets are still hurting.
- - - The former president is seizing on every negative bit of economic news to make the point that the economy is much worse than the Biden administration says.
The big picture: Vice President Kamala Harris is doing the opposite and grabbing onto any good news. It's a cherry-picking battle.
Zoom in: Trump falsely claimed last week that the Biden administration manipulated jobs data after a standard " and scheduled " revision showed the U.S. economy created 818,000 fewer jobs than previously estimated.
- - - Trump was wrong on why " and how " the new numbers were released. But the labor market is cooling, news that Trump wants to drive home.
- - - "Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of Kamalanomics because no one can afford it," RNC spokesperson Anna Kelly says.
- - - "After three-and-a-half years of sky-high inflation on everything from gas to groceries to housing costs, voters are feeling the pinch as a result of the Harris-Biden spending spree." ...
Between the lines: The risk for Trump is that his doom-and-gloom approach could turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. If he wins, he'd be inheriting an economy that's slowing down -- and will be much harder to speed up with words alone. ...
