“When leaders neglect lived experience, the message collapses,” wrote former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in The New York Times.

That is precisely the mistake Biden made, lauding the success of “Bidenomics” while “too many people were struggling with the prices of groceries, rent, child care and gas,” she said. “Their lived experience did not match the encouraging economic news, and that disconnect shaped the entire public conversation.”

That disconnect between presidential rhetoric and reality helped elect Donald Trump two years ago. Today, it’s crushing him.

Voters are experts on one thing: themselves. On many issues, they have no firsthand information to question Trump’s numerous fraudulent claims, like that the Iran war is a success or that he won the 2020 election.

But when the president boasts about a “golden age” of prosperity or that prices are coming down or that the affordability crisis is a “hoax,” they can see with their own eyes, in their own lives, that he’s lying to them.

That’s why, as the think tank The Conference Board reports, consumer confidence dropped sharply in September, down to its lowest reading since 2014. That’s why only 26% approve of........

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