(Bloomberg) -- Republican nominee Donald Trump cast doubt on the economy as the most important election issue, one in which he has a significant voter trust advantage over his rival, Kamala Harris, who is planning to make a speech about consumer prices later this week.
“Now this is a little bit of a different day, because we’re talking about a thing called the economy. They wanted to do a speech on the economy,” Trump said at a rally in Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday, in an apparent reference to his campaign aides.
“They say it’s the most important subject, I’m not sure it is, but they say it’s the most important subject. Inflation is the most important but that’s part of the economy,” Trump said, before pivoting to talk about efforts Harris’ running mate Tim Walz undertook as Minnesota’s governor to make tampons available for public school students.
The Trump campaign’s mixed attempts to focus on the economy come as voters have repeatedly and consistently told pollsters that it is the top issue in determining who they’ll vote for. It’s also a winning issue for the former president: Trump leads Harris by an eight-percentage-point margin on whom voters trust more on the economy, according to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll of seven swing states.
Voters in the so-called Blue Wall states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are even more likely to align with Trump (53 per cent) rather than Harris (44 per cent) on the economy, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll, though some nationwide polls show Harris closing in on Trump’s lead on the issue.
Trump on Wednesday evening touched many familiar themes, including his intent to extend tax cuts on households and small businesses, exempt tips and Social Security payments from taxes and bolster domestic oil and gas production.
He pledged to cut energy costs in half in the first 12 to 18 months of a new term by eliminating regulation and approving more domestic energy production, which has reached record highs under U.S. President Joe Biden.
Trump then suggested that might be overly ambitious, adding “and if it doesn’t work out, you’ll say, ‘Oh, well’.”
He also pledged to not alter the Affordable Care Act, a law Republicans sought to repeal during his first White House term. Republicans ultimately abandoned the effort after failing to agree on a proposal to replace the health care framework. Trump said he would only resume those efforts if the party could come up with a “better” alternative.
Trump called a key ally, Scott Bessent, the founder of Key Square Group LP who is among those under discussion for a cabinet role in a second Trump term, onto the stage in Asheville, introducing him as “one of the most brilliant men on Wall Street.” Bessent is a major campaign donor who has praised Trump’s policies for boosting stock market performance.
Economic emphasis
Trump’s rally — his first appearance in a swing state in nearly two weeks — comes as his campaign is seeking to bat down Harris’s surge in the polls since she replaced Biden at the top of the ticket last month. Her momentum has tightened the race in several swing states, including North Carolina, where Trump once had a wide lead over Biden.
Harris will also pay a visit this week to North Carolina, which Trump clinched in 2020 and is a must-win for him this year. In Raleigh on Friday, the vice president will discuss her plan to lower prices. She is seeking to override poor voter perceptions of Biden’s handling of the economy, with persistent inflation overshadowing efforts to tout investments in domestic manufacturing and infrastructure.
North Carolina has a good economy that somewhat lags the explosive growth of its neighbour, South Carolina. The state added about 80,000 jobs in the year ended June, a 1.6 per cent growth rate that ranked it 17th among the states. Likewise, its real gross domestic product rose 2.3 per cent from the fourth quarter of last year to the first quarter of this one, ranking 18th nationally.
One concern has been a decline in manufacturing jobs in recent years, including a drop about 6,000 over the last year, federal data show.
Fair comparison or not, South Carolina’s 3.5 per cent jobs growth led the nation over the past year, while its GDP growth ranked slightly better than North Carolina’s at 13th nationally. Especially relevant to candidates, North Carolina has a surprisingly high share of rural counties, despite all the political focus on economic powerhouses Charlotte and Raleigh. About 3.5 million North Carolinians live in rural areas, second in the nation only to Texas, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Ad battles
North Carolina is beginning to see some heavy political advertising buys, a sign that both campaigns see the state as highly competitive. Through the end of August, Trump’s campaign and his allied super political action committee Make America Great Again Inc. have collectively reserved US$11 million worth of ads, according to AdImpact.
Harris’ campaign is slated to spend $1 million in the coming weeks.
With assistance from Michael Sasso, Bill Allison, Hadriana Lowenkron and María Paula Mijares Torres
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