GOP's elderly voters don't care about the economy -- so Trump's running on the one thing they can understand

CNBC's John Harwood easily distilled why President Trump, who inherited a strong and growing economy from President Obama, is running a fear mongering campaign: fear is the only thing that brings out his white, elderly base.

"In terms of the 'mobs not jobs', just remember the subtext," Harwood said, acknowledging that Democrats have a better economic record than Republicans. "The Democrats are a diverse party. The Republicans appeal to older whites and the mob thing is an attempt to alarm those voters about the prospect of nonwhites and immigrants and terrorists and that sort of thing."

"People have absorbed the fact that the economy has been growing for quite sometime," Harwood added. "But people kind of get that we haven't had a revolution in the economy under President Trump and they're focusing on other things, and those culture war issues are part of it."

"[Trump] knows what really motivates the conservative base and it's this feeling of cultural alienation," added co-panelist Sahil Kapur, who noted the rapid demographic changes in the United States, as the country becomes younger, browner, and liberal.

"He's painting a picture of a bunch of immigrants, criminals, and angry mobs coming to overwhelm, you know, ordinary Americans," Kapur said. "I think it's a signal that, you know, the economy's not going to save the Republicans in this election."

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