Expect to see a lot more of this. What we’ve seen in New Zealand is that an administration concerned only with its own popularity can do pretty well for itself by pushing anecdotes and photo-ops like this one, while shrugging off empirical, statistical evidence of decline as slander and propaganda. It doesn’t matter if the quantity and quality of employment opportunities in America continue to go downhill overall, as long as Trump can keep tying himself to any positive stories he can find.
It seems to work pretty well. I hate to say it but if Trump is willing to play this game for the next four years I think he’ll get a second term out of it, if he wants.
