Make New York Post a Preferred Source President Trump speaking during a Hispanic Heritage Month reception in the East Room at the White House on Sept. 30, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst What a paradox: Almost all US economic indicators are strong today, and America’s economy is the envy of the world — yet consumers, stressed by gas prices at almost $4.50 a gallon, are in a bad mood.
That’s why Republicans need to go bold and sell the good news about President Donald Trump’s economy to voters.
After all, median household incomes jumped to an all-time-high of $87,500 in 2025, while poverty rates fell to an all-time low.
The latest jobs numbers show very low numbers of firings and layoffs, and record low sign-ups for unemployment benefits, as manufacturing and construction surge.
The Energy Department just announced that domestic oil production is at all-time record levels, thanks to Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” policies.
Meanwhile the 401(k) plans held by more than 100 million Americans, a useful gauge of household wealth, are up an average of $25,000 — after losing $24,000, in real terms, under former President Joe Biden.
The stock market is at an all-time high, nearly doubling in the decade since Trump was first elected, even as the markets of two of our major economic rivals, China and Japan, have been flat.
But elections are about tomorrow, not yesterday — so celebrating these gains, strong as they are, isn’t enough to convince voters to stay the course.
And while the $5,000 government “dividend” payment that Trump floated in September may be a political non-starter, there’s a better way.
Republicans should pledge a sustainable “financial dividend” by continuing to slash taxes for middle-class families — expanding the work they started in their One Big Beautiful Bill a year ago.
That means making the bill’s individual tax cuts (tax-free tips, overtime and Social Security payments) permanent, along with 100% permanent depreciation for machinery, equipment, plants and data centers — pro-growth incentives that will expand the jobs boom.
They should also eliminate the unfair capital-gains inflation tax on stocks and homes, which would free up supply and make buying a new home less expensive.
This tax-slashing agenda will offer a sharp and much-needed contrast in the midterm elections, as Democrats keep pushing to raise tax rates.
They’re stumping all over the country promoting the Bernie Sanders line, replete with big-government, free-lunch socialist solutions.
If the GOP argues instead for free-enterprise prosperity, it’ll make a clear case for voters to choose the alternative that’s demonstrably best for family finances.
That’s because Trump’s agenda already has delivered high financial returns for families.
Trump’s affordability track record is outstanding.
In his first term, real median household income rose by $6,600 — and only the COVID lockdowns of 2020 kept that from becoming a nearly $8,000 median “dividend” per family.
Compare that to Biden, who oversaw a paltry $500 gain in median family income during his four years in the White House.
So far, through the first year and a half of Trump’s second term, real median income is up an additional $2,000 — that’s above inflation.
These are also pretax numbers: Including the value of the Trump tax cuts adds at least $2,000 more to middle-class annual disposable incomes.
Add it all together and we estimate — based on Census numbers and the value of the Democrat-opposed Trump tax cuts — that the median-income family has gained just under $10,000 in purchasing power in Trump’s first five-plus years in office.
That’s almost 20 times more than Biden delivered in four years.
In fact, most of the affordability crisis that’s driving voter anxiety was created during Biden’s presidency: About 80% in the rise in prices happened from 2021 to 2024, when inflation rose by more than any presidency since Jimmy Carter’s.
GOP candidates should be shouting these numbers from the rooftops — because the media sure won’t.
Republicans, don’t run away from the Trump economic miracle: Celebrate the fact that America is leading the world, thanks to our strategy of successful tax cuts, deregulation and energy dominance.
That’s a strong closing argument in these last few weeks of election season.
Larry Kudlow is the chairman of the America First Policy Institute, where Stephen Moore is a senior fellow for American prosperity.
