You’re reading The Financial Page , John Cassidy’s weekly column on economics and politics.

As the U.S. economy heads into the holiday spending season, Donald Trump is continuing to insist that all is sunny. “We are doing phenomenally well. This is the greatest economy we’ve ever had,” he told Laura Ingraham, of Fox News, early last week. When Ingraham raised voter concerns about affordability that featured heavily in recent elections in New Jersey, New York, and Virginia, Trump dismissed them as “a con job by the Democrats.” Before flying to his Mar-a-Lago retreat for the weekend, he repeated the “con job” phrase on social media. More tellingly, however, he also signed an executive order eliminating tariffs on imported beef, coffee, and bananas, all of which have risen sharply in pri

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