Karl W. Smith, Columnist

Trump Makes His Best Case for Re-Election

The president rightly highlights economic growth but is unconvincing about the trade war.

November 13, 2019 at 2:30 AM UTC

Karl W. Smith is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. Previously, he was vice president for federal policy at the Tax Foundation and assistant professor of economics at the University of North Carolina.

Making his case.
Photographer: Demetrius Freeman/Bloomberg

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If President Donald Trump hopes to bring economic conservatives back to his side, this was the case he needed to make. In a speech Tuesday at the Economic Club of New York, he offered a strong defense of his record on both economic growth and job creation.

His argument for his trade war, on the other hand, was compelling as rhetoric but utterly lacking as economic analysis.