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With less than a week to go before President Donald Trump‘s first State of the Union address of his second presidential term, the White House is quietly preparing its war footing. During a private meeting at the Capitol Hill Club, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles coalesced scores of senior staffers alongside Cabinet members to be briefed by pollster Tony Fabrizio on messaging for the 2026 elections. The thesis of Fabrizio’s warning, that the economy and cost of living, but specifically healthcare and housing prices, will determine 2026, is unsurprising for anyone who has followed Tiana’s Take in the Washington Examiner magazine. But the fact that Trump seems to be taking the warning signs far more seriously than former President Joe Biden ever did is less expected and better news for Republicans.

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The fascinating feature about the economy’s salience as an electoral issue is that almost all boring bean counters agree: the economy, by the numbers, is actually doing quite well. The political nut for the president’s team to crack is understanding why the disconnect has only deepened between the raw economic data and how negatively voters feel about the economy.

REAL WAGES UP 1.9% IN TRUMP’S FIRST YEAR BACK IN OFFICE

On the one hand, Trump inherited the worst inflationary crisis in nearly half a century and, within one year, is on the cusp of accomplishing the first indisputable soft landing in postwar history. To recap, the unemployment rate is humming along near historic lows at 4.3%, and while inflation remains above its 2% maximum target, consumer price index inflation, which was at 3% by the end of Biden’s presidency, fell to 2.4% in January. Core CPI inflation, which was at 3.3%, has fallen to 2.5%, its lowest point since Biden lit the economy on fire by signing his........

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