CNN's Audie Cornish expressed surprise at a former White House official's analysis of President Donald Trump's economic address from the White House.
The president delivered a roughly 20-minute address Wednesday night from the Diplomatic Reception Room blaming current economic troubles on former President Joe Biden and insisting the economy was improving, and one of Trump's former White House communications directors told "CNN This Morning" the speech fell short of the mark.
"It felt more like a marathonshoved into a sprint," said Mike Dubke, who served under Trump in early 2017. "From mypoint of view, it was a mini State of the Union, about amonth or a month and a halfbefore he's going to deliverhis real State of the the Union.I thought this was going to bean economic speech. I thoughtthat this was going to be kindof a restart on the economicmessaging – that's what I washoping for."
Cornish said that seemed to be the intent, but she pressed Dubke to explain what he meant.
"Why are yousaying it like that?" Cornish said.
"Well, because it really was areplay of all of the campaignissues from 2024," Dubke explained, "and while Ithink there are a lot,especially on the border, a lotof victories that President Trump can can claim, the American people are lookingforward, not backwards, and I– and if I had to be criticalof the speech, I think thatwould be my main criticism thatit was looking backwards towardsthese victories rather thanforwards towards what thetariffs are going to mean for,say, lower-income individuals."
"Maybe it will lower your taxes, he should have spoken, in myopinion – more on no taxes ontips and overtime, whatcame forward in the, I guesswe're calling it the Working Families Tax Act," Dubke added, referring to the law more commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. "There is a lotof good that was in that billthat will come to fruition in2026, and that's where I wouldhave really pressed."
Cornish asked how that message was different from what Biden's team said to reassure Americans about the economy.
"That's not what the Bidenpeople said," Dubke said. "They said, you don'trealize, you don't realize how goodyou have it now."
Fellow panelist Meghan Hays was part of Biden's communications team during the first two years of his term, and she commented on the differences between the former president's message and Trump's address.
"First of all, thatspeech did not rise to the levelof a prime-time address from the White House, and I'm surprisedthe networks took it," Hays said. "There's alevel set there that is notsomething that needed to beaddressed in prime time. It wasone of his rambling, screamingremarks that said nothing. We'restill unemployment is thehighest it's been since 2022.Inflation is exactly where itwas when he took office, andcontinuing to blame the past, toyour point, is not working."
"People still are not feeling anyrelief, and there's nosolutions, and then to top itoff, Congress is leaving todaywithout doing anything about thehealth care subsidies," Hays added. "So he'ssaying one thing, Congress isnot doing anything to be helpfulto him to even drive a messageif they wanted to, and the American people are the onesstill suffering while gettingyelled at by the president."