Happy Halloween! We don’t mean to scare you, but there are still five days to go before voting ends, and this presidential race could still go either way.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump both focused on the southwestern battleground states of Arizona and Nevada today — and they’re again looking to capitalize on some celebrity appeal. Actress Jennifer Lopez is scheduled to join Harris in Las Vegas tonight, while former Fox News host Tucker Carlson is set to join Trump in Phoenix. Trump also stopped in New Mexico. Here’s the latest.
Trump Visits New Mexico to Appeal to Latinos: ‘Good for My Credentials’
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday swung his campaign away from the seven key swing states to hold an event in Albuquerque, New Mexico — a state where Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is thought to hold a clear edge.
“I’m here for one simple reason,” Trump said. “I like you very much, and it’s good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community.”
Those credentials likely could use some shoring up after comic Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at Trump’s New York rally on Sunday.
At his New Mexico event, Trump continued to make hay out of President Joe Biden’s own “garbage” comment, which the White House insisted was not meant about all Trump supporters, just the hateful language used a couple of days earlier at Madison Square Garden. “My supporters are of far higher quality and I think much smarter than Crooked Joe or Lyin’ Kamala,” he said.
Trump uses garbage truck stunt to trash Biden: Trump, the former reality TV star, staged a made-for-TV stunt Wednesday in which he sat in a Trump-branded garbage truck in Green Bay, Wisconsin, wearing a reflective orange vest of the type sanitation workers might wear. He also donned the vest at a campaign rally in the evening.
But Trump provided Harris and other critics with some new fodder during that appearance, saying he will protect women, whether they “like it or not.”
“It actually is, I think, very offensive to women in terms of not understanding their agency, their authority, their right and their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies,” Harris told reporters in Madison, Wisconsin, before heading out west. “And this is just the latest in a series of reveals by the former president of how he thinks about women and their agency.”
A Trump campaign spokesperson told reporters that the media portrayal of Trump and his treatment of women is false. “Women deserve a President who will secure our nation’s borders, remove violent criminals from our neighborhoods, and build an economy that helps our families thrive — and that’s exactly what President Trump will do," Karoline Leavitt told NBC News.
Questions about Trump’s campaign strategy: Trump’s visit to New Mexico today and a planned stop Saturday in Virginia, also a reliably blue state, are raising some questions among political strategists — as did earlier events in Democratic strongholds like New York and California. “While Trump’s advisers and allies say they see advantages in these stops, including helping down-ballot Republicans and popping into geographically convenient places that might be more competitive than they seem, others see them as a risk they could come to regret,” The Washington Post’s Hannah Knowles and Marianne LeVine write.
Harris hits GOP on healthcare: In speaking with reporters, Harris also seized on the comments by House Speaker Mike Johnson that we told you about yesterday in which he indicated Republicans are eyeing a “massive reform” of the Affordable Care Act if Trump wins.
“Healthcare for all Americans is on the line in this election,” she said, warning that the gains in health insurance coverage made under the Affordable Care Act could be threatened and that insurance companies could go back to denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
Key Inflation Measure Falls to Lowest Level Since Early 2021
A measure of inflation closely watched by the Federal Reserve hit a three-and-half-year low in September, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. The personal consumption expenditures price index rose just 2.1% on a 12-month basis, a decline from the 2.3% rate recorded in August and just a hair above the central bank’s target inflation rate of 2.0%.
A related measure, the core PCE price index, which ignores volatile food and fuel prices to provide a better sense of the underlying trend, told a slightly different story. Core PCE rose 2.7% on an annual basis in September, maintaining the modestly hotter level recorded in July and August. On a monthly basis, core PCE rose 0.3%, a bump up from the 0.2% rate in August.
The report also shows a robust increase in personal spending, which rose 0.5% in September, supported by an 0.3% increase in disposable income.
What the experts are saying: While some analysts said they were concerned about the stickiness of core inflation, most hailed the report as another sign that the economy is healthy and the battle against inflation is all but won.
“Robust spending, increasing income and the re-establishment of price stability amid strong productivity gains are the primary factors shaping the economic narrative,” said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM. “American households are well positioned to keep spending at a 3% to 3.5% pace as inflation moves back to 2% and real wages continue to increase.”
Olu Sonola, head of U.S. economic research at Fitch Ratings, offered a similar summary. “The bottom line is that the labor market remains strong, inflation is broadly disinflationary with some bumps along the road, and economic growth is solid,” Sonola said in a research note, per CNN.
Gregory Daco, chief economist at the tax and accounting firm EY, told CNN that the data points to an ideal scenario in which inflation is defeated without the economy falling into a recession. “It’s essentially the soft landing that many of us dreamed of,” he said. “You really have the best of both worlds, with consumer spending growth remaining resilient and inflation moving within striking distance of the Fed’s 2% target.”
Chart of the Day
Created by the economist Arthur Okun in the 1970s, the misery index combines the inflation rate and the unemployment rate to provide a sense of how average citizens are doing. The index soared during a period of stagflation 50 years ago, helping Ronald Reagan ride a wave of discontent into the White House in 1980.
This year, voters are reporting significant dissatisfaction with current economic conditions, but the misery index tells a different story. As this chart from economist Justin Wolfers shows, the misery index will likely be near a record Election Day low when voters hit the polls next week — though what that means for the outcome of the balloting is anybody’s guess.
Fiscal News Roundup
- Inflation Gauge Closely Watched by the Fed Falls to Lowest Level Since Early 2021 – Associated Press
- The Economy Is Booming, but Inflation Is on Voters’ Minds as Election Nears – Washington Post
- Harris Rebukes Trump for Saying He Will Protect Women Whether They ‘Like It or Not’ – Washington Post
- Trump Takes Vague, Shifting Stances. Many Supporters Fill in the Blanks – Washington Post
- Speaker Mike Johnson Is Pulling Closer to Trump to Save the GOP’s House Majority – Associated Press
- The Struggle for Senate Control Goes Down to the Wire as Spending Shatters Records – Associated Press
- Disaster Aid Bill Seen More Likely Than Omnibus Spending Package Post-Election – Roll Call
- Trump Transition Official Says RFK Jr. Wants to Force Vaccines Off the Market – The Hill
- Trump Is Turning Pennsylvania Into Ground Zero for His Election Conspiracy Theories – Politico
- Meet the Wall Street Bigwig Who Has Become Trump’s Headhunter in Chief – Wall Street Journal
- Congress Tried to Fix Presidential Transitions. Trump Is Testing the Changes – Washington Post
- Companies Ready Price Hikes to Offset Trump’s Global Tariff Plans – Washington Post
- Pentagon Audit Says Boeing Cleaned Up on Air Force Parts, Including Soap Dispensers Marked Up 8,000% – Associated Press
- New York State Chosen as National Center for Chip Manufacturing Research – New York Times
- LeBron James Endorses Harris – NBC News
Views and Analysis
- Inflation Is Basically Back to Normal. Why Do Voters Still Feel Blah? – Jeanna Smialek, New York Times
- America Won the War on Inflation. You Still Think the Economy Stinks – David Goldman, CNN
- The Next President Inherits a Remarkable Economy – Greg Ip, Wall Street Journal
- The Best Protection From Trump’s Inflationary Agenda: Just Be Filthy Rich – Allison Morrow, CNN
- 23 Nobel Laureates Can’t Be Wrong About Trump – Kathryn Anne Edwards, Bloomberg
- Econ 101 Is Wrong About Tariffs – Brian Albrecht, Economic Forces
- Harris’ Elder Care Plan Would Help Gen X Through the Sandwich Years – Lisa Jarvis, Bloomberg
- ‘McCarthyism All Over Again’? Plan to Target Federal Workers Prompts Fears – Justin Papp, Roll Call
- Trump’s Threats to the Press Are Serious and Literal – Ramesh Ponnuru, Washington Post
- ‘Like It or Not’: In One Quote, Trump Distills the 2024 Gender Gap – Philip Bump, Washington Post
- Why the Right Thinks Trump Is Running Away With the Race – Ken Bensinger and Kaleigh Rogers, New York Times
- How Public Health Could Be Recast in a Second Trump Term – Apoorva Mandavilli, New York Times