audio version of the segment here > If the Dems want to put Trump on the ballot, Repubs should too
Jay Weber Show transcript 12-11-25
As you’d might expect-I got some blowback by liberals and democrats in the audience over the topic i did yesterday, suggesting that democrats could be running themselves right into a political ‘box canyon’ by putting all their hopes for next fall into the ‘affordability’ basket.
This is because-the truth is- the economy -is-starting to improve around the margins. And the truth is - that the trump and GOP tax bill and deregulating and recommitting to all forms of energy and a few more interest rate cuts next year- are all going to start bearing more economic fruit.
That is exactly the question that should be asked next spring and summer. Relentlessly. It should be asked against the backdrop if a ‘clearly improved’ economy and with the democrats having made the entire election about quote…affordability.
The update today is- as predicted- the federal reserve board did approve a quarter-percent rate cut. It’s not much, but it’s something to keep the investors interested and the trump white house from blowing a gasket. It allows for lending institutions to drop the interest rates on home and car loans just a little bit more to try to induce more buying…etc. It’s a net positive.
Also, as we approach the year end tax season…the business channels and more traditional newsrooms are starting to talk more about the additional tax breaks for certain Americans that were in the big, beautiful bill…. That will lead to some significant tax savings next year.
The no-taxes on tips kicks in for most Americans who work for tips. The no tax on overtime kicks in for another group of hourly workers. A significant social security deduction kicks in for seniors making less than 75-thousand dollars in yearly income.
Here’s one that hasn’t gotten much attention but will make all sorts of people happy when they have their taxes done: remember, trump and republicans said you can write off the interest you paid on your car loans now. Fantastic. That’s a new gift for some.
Then you’ve got the child tax credit expansion…being moved up to 22-hundred dollars and indexed to inflation. That will be a pleasant surprise for some families.
And those are just some of the things trump and the GOP have done to try to make life ‘more affordable’ for people that Biden and his team screwed over, and screwed over, and screwed over with their policies.
It should have most Americans feeling at least a sense that things are getting better…and as Cal Thomas suggested yesterday…it should have republicans asking voters one question-relentlessly-all summer and fall: why would you vote for the party that created all of this economic misery…instead of the party that is starting to fix it?
And as for the dire-current polls-that the left is concocting to insist that ‘everyone’s blaming trump for this now…. because people are really hurting’... I say bull plop.
The people who just spent record amounts on Halloween, and thanksgiving, and on cyber-Monday and black Friday- are not- hurting. The American people are not gathering tree bark and moss…and boiling it with a leather shoe to make soup… and huddling against the cold and blaming trump…if they are spending record amounts of money on the holidays this year.
And- sorry- but four in ten Americans are not ‘paying more for gasoline under trump’....as an ABC poll tried to tell us this week. Not when gas prices are down 80 cents to a dollar per gallon since trump took office and are at their lowest seasonal price in nearly 20 years.
So, more Americans are flying-and driving-this Christmas than ever before but sipping ‘bark soup’ in their frigid homes, otherwise. Bull. Plop.Oh, and bus, train and cruise ship travel is up about nine percent from last year. Nine percent. This is not a country whose people are hurting. I’m sorry, it’s not.
It’s why I have to chalk up most of these polls as part of the larger effort for the democrat strategists and their accomplices in the media to gaslight the American people into believing that ‘this economy’ and ‘this cost of living’ are worse than they were inthe Biden era. They’re not.
And if you are one of the 4 in ten people who insists you are paying more for gasoline per gallon than you did under Biden, stop lying or get a brain scan. Gas is down significantly. And as for President Trump. Quote…dismissing affordability…that, too, is bologna, but i will also admit that the way he’s phrasing his complaining has allowed the democrats to spin his comments and trick people into ‘hearing’ the president dismiss their price concerns.
He’s not. He’s dismissing the notion that he’s the cause of them and that the democrats who caused 22 percent inflation and so much of this pain…are now insisting it’s his fault. That’s what he’s calling a scam. He just isn’t clear about that in interviews.
JD Vance. Marco rubio. Ron DeSantis. Other GOP surrogates who are better off-the-cuff speakers should be the surrogates for the Trump/GOP effort…not trump, himself….because he hasn’t ever articulated his own position all that well. On virtually anything.
He’s not calling higher prices or overall affordability a scam. He’s calling the democrat’s gaslighting on it a scam. Another thing that might help is to have someone around him tell him to ‘stick to the script’ or coach him on ways to relay certain information.
If his chief of staff, Susie wiles, is really going to have him campaigning like it’s a presidential year next fall. Then they should load him up with phrases and narratives that ‘are’ helpful and wisely crafted…and break him of the habit of using unhelpful phrases.Like ‘affordability is a scam’. But wiles this week, said that trump will campaign like it’s 2024 next year….in an attempt to help republicans hold the house and senate.
I can already hear some of the republican and conservative strategists screaming ‘nooo!!!’...We don’t want trump out there cozying up to republican candidates because he’s not popular…etc… for the activist left and the democrats- Donald trump-is-on the ballot next fall, right?
Trump, Trump, Trump is going to consume nearly all their campaigns. Mandela Barnes launched his bid for governor here in Wisconsin, and so far, only seems to want to talk about trump. Trump isn’t running for Wisconsin governor next year.There’s no reason to focus on him-other than- as a leftist boogieman.
But- if ‘Trump’ is on the ballot next fall for dems and hatred for him is going to motivate the democrat’s voters…well then there’s no reason not to have trump out campaigning and trying to convince the lower propensity voters who will only vote for him…to come out and help him keep control of the party. Understand?
In short-if the democrats are going to ensure that the Trump haters are highly motivated to vote next fall…regardless of what republicans do… then there’s nothing to lose in having republicans make trump the face of their off-year races, too, and hope he can finally convince those ‘Trump only’ voters to come out and vote next fall….to ‘help Trump’.
Trump’s pitch will need to be…I need you to come out and vote for…Derrick Van Orden…and Brian Steil…and Tom Tiffany…. etc. Because it helps me. You people who will only vote for me…well…don’t be dopes. You can vote for me by voting for these others.
That’s one of the few things that might change the pattern we’ve seen in this modern republican party that has the so-called ‘Trump only’ voters staying home if his name-literally-isn’t on the ballot.
Well, his name won’t be on the actual ballot next fall, but his agenda and his legacy will be. The future of the Maga movement will be. And so, he’s got to convince those myopic ‘Trump only’ voters that it’s stupid to stay home just because his name doesn’t literally appear on the ballot.
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