State of the Trump economy ahead of election day

Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman joins Akiko Fujita to give an overview of President Trump's handling of the economy as we approach the final presidential debate.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Well, just two weeks and one day to go until the presidential election. We've got President Trump and Joe Biden making their closing arguments to voters. For the president, it is largely about the economy and what he sees as his success story.

Let's bring in Rick Newman for that. And Rick, no question-- going into the very last presidential debate this Thursday, the president hoping to pivot so that he can be continuing to talk about the economy. Rick, we've got you muted.

RICK NEWMAN: I'm sorry about that, Akiko. I'm just used to having my own little corner here at the Yonkers Bureau. You know, I guess Trump will try to talk about the economy. Mostly he talks about the economy before the virus. And he says things like, we had the greatest economy ever. And then of course, he does a lot of negative campaigning trying to bash Joe Biden.

I've been tracking the Trump economy since he started. And he was doing pretty well-- not the greatest economy ever, but right before the virus, our "Trumponomics" report card gave Trump a B-plus on the economy. That has now tumbled all the way down to C. So he's lost four notches.

Some people might wonder why he doesn't get a lower grade. He's dead last in three of the categories we track. But believe it or not, he's at the top in terms of average hourly earnings. And that's partly a statistical quirk. We can talk about that more, if you want.

But then he does OK on the value of stocks and a couple of other things. So he's not-- it's not a terrible economy under Trump. It's just obviously very challenged.

AKIKO FUJITA: And Rick, we've been talking a lot about how the economy has actually been a weakness, the one weakness you could argue, for Joe Biden and voters. How does he pivot that conversation? Or does that matter, given that he has really largely been trying to keep the focus on the president's handling of the virus?

RICK NEWMAN: Well, you know, Biden-- he has this plan called the Build Back Better plan. I have to say that slowly, because I think it's kind of a terrible phrase. It does not flow trippingly off the tongue, as they say.

But he says-- he basically says he'll do a better job rebuilding the economy. He wants to focus more on working class and middle class people. And of course, he has attacked the Trump tax cuts, saying that they favor businesses and the wealthy too much. And that resonates with voters. Polls show voters actually do think that the tax cuts Trump signed in 2017 favor the wealthy too much.

So Biden wants to do some spending plans-- more child care, for example, more elder care. He's been talking a lot about this. And I think the real question-- I don't think people are analyzing Biden's plans in great detail. I think the real question is, are they going to feel like things are getting better as they vote or are they going to feel like things are getting worse, or they're just not getting better?

And I actually think Trump is making a mistake on this one. He's basically telling voters-- I think we're going to hear this in the next debate this week-- we're rounding the corner. Things are getting back to normal. And if you tell voters that things are good but they know things are not good, they're going to punish you. And I think Trump is just giving a message to a lot of voters that just rings hollow, because we know tons of people are still struggling.

AKIKO FUJITA: Well, and Rick, you know, given that we have seen the really long lines from some of these states where they have already started early voting, you have to wonder if the closing arguments will really stick, given that a lot of voters have already made up their minds. But of course, we will be watching too that final debate on Thursday. Thanks so much for that.