JENNY BETH MARTIN: Trump Talks Economic Comeback

JENNY BETH MARTIN: Trump Talks Economic Comeback

by | Dec 12, 2025 | Opinion

By Jenny Beth Martin |

What a difference a year makes. As President Trump highlighted in his speech in Pennsylvania Tuesday, by any number of metrics, the economy is barreling full steam ahead. The sign he stood in front of said it all: “lower prices, bigger paychecks.” And the data backs him up. As he said Tuesday: “Pennsylvania is winning again.” Those words are no hollow rallying cry, they reflect real results.

Just weeks ago, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) revised its estimates for second-quarter 2025 economic growth, and the results were dramatic. Real gross domestic product surged at an annualized 3.8 percent rate, far stronger than the 3.0 percent estimate given just months earlier. It’s a stunning rebound after the last six months of the Biden era, when growth came in at 3.3 percent for the third quarter of 2024 and a truly anemic 1.9 percent for the fourth quarter.

That isn’t just chump change – that kind of growth doesn’t happen when consumers and businesses are on edge. It happens when Americans are confident, when households are spending, and when businesses are investing. As the BEA itself noted, this uptick came largely from rising consumer spending and a drop in imports (imports are subtracted from GDP).

What’s more, the “real final sales to private domestic purchasers” (which strips out the wild swings from trader and inventories and zeroes in on actual domestic demand) – one of the metrics economists use to compare one quarter to another – rose 2.9 percent in Q2. That’s a full percentage point stronger than previously believed.

This is no small rebound. After a rough start in 2025, with a slight contraction in Q1, the second quarter delivered a burst of energy, and proved that policies set in motion by the Trump administration are working.

You don’t have to stare at macroeconomic spreadsheets to sense the shift. Many Americans are now spending dollars, investing in their kids’ futures, stocking up the pantry, and buying gifts.

The 2025 Black Friday weekend delivered record-breaking numbers. According to Adobe Analytics, which tracks e-commerce, “U.S. consumers spent a record $11.8 billion online … marking a 9.1% jump from last year,” reported the Associated Press. And it wasn’t just Black Friday that set a record – consumers spent $6.4 billion online on Thanksgiving Day itself, another record.

That’s not just digital “click traffic;” that’s real money moving – money that represents families who feel secure enough to spend, businesses stockpiling inventory, and entrepreneurs launching new ventures. That kind of consumer vitality ripples outward.

As President Trump put it Tuesday in Pennsylvania: “We are bringing back real value to the American people.” That resonates – because people across income levels just proved with their wallets that they believe in this comeback.

Beyond holiday shopping and GDP headlines lies another signal of confidence and strength: retirement. Per the latest data from Fidelity Investments, the number of Americans with at least $1 million in their 401(k) accounts just hit a new record. About 654,000 Americans are now 401(k) millionaires – up sharply from 595,000 at the end of June, and up from 544,000 a year ago, representing a 20% surge from the Biden years.

This isn’t just financial fluff for the wealthy – this is a genuine barometer of middle-class Americans putting faith in the markets, stocks, and long-term saving. It means that working people who stashed cash through decades of effort are now seeing those savings efforts rewarded.

The rising number of 401(k) millionaires couldn’t have come at a better time. With traditional pensions disappearing, millions of Americans are forced to rely on defined-contribution retirement plans. The climb in 401(k) balances signals that people are adapting and succeeding.

Put together – the 3.8 percent GDP growth, the Thanksgiving/Black Friday spending splurge, the record-high 401(k) millionaires – and one conclusion becomes clear: the Trump economy is booming.

When families feel confident enough to save, invest, and spend, that’s when you know the recovery has legs. President Trump and his administration have laid the groundwork – lower regulation, pro-growth policies, and a renewed sense of optimism.

Tuesday in Pennsylvania, President Trump didn’t just talk about jobs and tariffs, he talked about restoring American dignity and opportunity. “We’re bringing back real value,” he said. And with the data now piling up, “real value” isn’t just a slogan. It’s a restoration of America’s economic foundation.

At this moment, for Americans across the board, the comeback isn’t merely a promise. It’s happening. And you can feel it, see it, and invest in it.

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Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Jenny Beth Martin is a contributor to the Daily Caller News Foundation and Honorary Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action.

‘Bidenomics’ Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving

‘Bidenomics’ Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving

by | Dec 16, 2023 | Opinion

By Jenny Beth Martin |

As Christmas approaches, Americans are making a list and checking it twice — not to determine who’s been naughty or nice, but to determine what they can afford this Christmas. For all too many of them, the answer is, not much, and certainly not as much as before Joe Biden became president.

That creates a political problem for the president, because even as he’s spent the better part of the past six months touting the benefits of “Bidenomics” (suggesting the word connotes a rising standard of living for the majority), the American people have come to a different far different conclusion. For them, “Bidenomics” means, “I can’t afford it.”

A recent Bloomberg News analysis shows why: A basket of goods for the average family that cost $100 before the COVID-19 emergency costs $119.27 today. “Since early 2020,” says the piece, “prices have risen about as much as they had in the full 10 years preceding the health emergency.” 

Electricity is up 25% since January 2020, and groceries the same. A pound of ground beef is up from $3.29 to $5.23; two pounds of chicken breast have risen from $6.12 to $8.44; and coffee has gone from $4.17 to $6.18.

You won’t save any money going out to eat — restaurant food is up 24%.

And getting there isn’t any less expensive, either. After peaking around $5 per gallon last year, gasoline has dropped somewhat, but gasoline prices today are still 60% higher than they were on the day Joe Biden took office.

Because of Biden’s bad energy policies (read: shutting down pipelines; stricter EV regulations; no leases for drilling; and new taxes on coal, oil, and natural gas, among others), energy prices have gone up overall by 30% in less than three years — electricity is up 25%, propane gas is up 23%, natural gas is up 25%, and diesel fuel is up 47%.

Housing, too, is far more expensive, and nearing unaffordable. In January 2021, the monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home was $989. Today, that number has more than doubled, to $2,041. Mortgage rates have more than doubled since Biden took office, pricing many families out of the market – and forcing sellers to pull back and sit on properties they’d prefer to sell, but cannot.

Not surprisingly, American families have turned to their credit cards just to make ends meet. The result: Americans now hold more than $1 trillion in credit card debt. That’s a record high.

It’s no wonder Biden’s approval ratings, and, specifically, his approval rating on his handling of the economy, are down. In this recent survey, he’s at 40% approve, 49% disapprove on his overall job rating, and 36% approve, 61% disapprove on his handling of the economy. A full 76 percent said the economy was either “not so good” or “poor” when asked to rate economic conditions right now. Just 26% of the survey respondents said Biden’s economic policies had helped the economy “a lot” or “somewhat,” while 48 percent said his policies had hurt the economy “somewhat” or “a lot.”

And in this poll’s version of the killer question Ronald Reagan posed in his one debate with Jimmy Carter in October of 1980 – “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” – just 4% say they are “much better off” and 10 percent say they are “somewhat better off” when asked how they have fared since Joe Biden became president.

Policies have consequences, and Americans are suffering under the real-world consequences of Joe Biden’s policies.

It’s bad enough that Americans have to suffer under the consequences of Biden’s bad policies. What makes it worse is that Biden and his administration are doubling down on their bad policies. They refuse to learn from the real-world experience of seeing the results of their policies; instead, they continue to act as if those consequences are not visible to anyone, let alone everyone.

In Reagan’s famous “A Time for Choosing” speech in October 1964 — the speech that many historians credit for launching his political career — he also famously said, “The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just they know so much that isn’t so.”

Biden and his Democrat allies know they want more government spending, more government programs, more government regulation, more government power and control over our lives.

Meanwhile, Rudolph goes hungry, because Santa can’t afford to feed his reindeer.

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Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Jenny Beth Martin is a contributor to the Daily Caller News Foundation and Honorary Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action.