Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Instant analysis: Trump’s doom-and-gloom economy doesn’t match Las Vegas reality

Presidential Debate at UNLV

Steve Marcus

Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton are shown during the final presidential debate at UNLV Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016.

Final Presidential Debate at UNLV

Republican nominee Donald Trump leaves the stage at the end of the final presidential debate against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at UNLV Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016. Launch slideshow »

Clinton Joins Latino Superstars in Post Debate Stop

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton makes an unscheduled stop at a debate watch party and concert at Craig Ranch Regional Park following her debate with Republican nominee Donald Trump Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016. Launch slideshow »

Leave it to Donald Trump to describe the economy as a disaster while appearing in a state where jobs just exceeded their pre-recession peak, unemployment has plunged in the last eight years and we’re gearing up to build a $1.9 billion NFL stadium.

Trump’s take on the state of the economy has often strayed from reality, and it went into its own orbit during tonight’s presidential debate at the Thomas & Mack Center.

In trying to convince Nevadans that President Barack Obama’s policies steered the economy toward a cliff and that Hillary Clinton would put the accelerator to the floor, Trump faced a daunting task.

He failed it.

If the nation is in such horrible shape — if “our jobs are being sucked away” and “our country is dying,” as Trump says — why has Nevada’s unemployment rate dropped from more than 14 percent in 2010 to 6.3 percent today? Why has visitorship climbed from 36.3 million annually in 2009 to 42.3 million last year? Why is the state preparing to build the stadium and launch a $1.4 billion project to expand the Las Vegas Convention Center?

Why did developers build T-Mobile Arena and the Lucky Dragon casino?

Why did MGM Resorts invest in the Park and sweeping renovations to the Monte Carlo? Why is Sheldon Adelson planning a concert arena, or Steve Wynn replacing the golf course at the Wynn/Encore complex with a lake complex?

Why is Tesla building a massive battery factory near Reno, and why has Faraday Future started earthwork on its $1 billion auto manufacturing plant in North Las Vegas?

The reality is that Nevada has done well — very well — during Obama’s administration.

We’re not completely recovered, given that our unemployment rate is still the third worst in the nation and we still lead the U.S. in percentage of underwater homeowners, among other indicators. But Las Vegas is anything but an economic Chernobyl.

To help sway Nevada voters, Trump needed to somehow convince him that his version of the economy was reality and that what voters saw around them was misleading.

He tried by throwing out some metrics that were legitimately disappointing — a weak national GDP increase and a bad jobs report — but he didn’t come close to showing Nevada hadn’t made gains under Obama.

“Our country is stagnant,” he said. “We’ve lost our jobs; we’ve lost our businesses.”

Sorry, Mr. Trump, but Las Vegas and Nevada have gone back on the make during Obama’s eight years as president.

So once again, Trump offered little if any reason for Nevada voters who are either undecided or who bailed out on him after one of his many missteps to get into his corner.

On the plus side for Trump, he appeared to finally listen to his advisers and, for the most part, focus on issues and keep his emotions in check, as opposed to letting Clinton bait him into the kind of incoherent rants he launched in the first two debates.

That made for a better debate — one in which the candidates spent a lot more time discussing issues than they did in the first two rounds.

Who would have thought that a 24/7/365 party town that promotes itself as a place to escape from day-to-day reality would be the place where substance returned to the presidential debates?

But whether Trump’s performance will make a difference is another issue.

He came into the debate trailing in 11 of the 13 polls that make up the Real Clear Politics average. And in the two where he wasn’t behind, he was tied in one and 1 point ahead in the other. In those in which he trailed, his deficit was double-digits in three.

So Trump appeared to be in a big hole, and he may have actually made it worse among Nevada voters by reiterating his gloom-and-doom assessment of the economy, while Clinton stayed the course with her message of creating jobs in infrastructure improvements and renewable energy, supporting small businesses, raising the minimum wage, expanding technology education and more.

Having watched Nevada pull itself off of the mat during the last eight years and point itself in a prosperous direction, voters could easily see Trump’s proposal for radical change not as relief, but a threat.

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