The economy’s crushing it, just like before 2008 crash!

After the Dow Jones industrials plunged 832 points on Wednesday, Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s chief economic adviser, proclaimed there’s no cause for concern. Not about the stock market, or turmoil in China’s economy, or American casualties of Trump’s trade fights, or the president’s attempt to bully the Federal Reserve into an easy-money stance.

“Our economy and the people and the workers and entrepreneurs, they’re killing it. We’re the hottest in the world,” Kudlow proclaimed to an CNBC camera. “We’re crushing it right now, and I think that’s going to continue regardless of China.”

Outside the West Wing, Kudlow said, “I don’t think this is anything resembling a sugar high. … America is on a tear,” to any other reporter who’d listen. But Wall Street didn’t buy it. The Dow lost another 546 points Thursday and finished the week down 4.2 percent, the third straight weekly decline.

Maybe that’s because investors had heard Kudlow say such words once before.

Ten months before the crash of 2008: “There’s no recession coming.”

Seven months before the crash: “The economy will be rebounding sometime this summer, if not sooner.”

Six weeks before the crash: “An awful lot of very good new news.”

This doesn’t necessarily mean the economy will tank. But it shows the level of Trump’s hucksterism. Trump called the stock market a “bubble” during the campaign, but he’s boasted multiple times about new records it’s set during his presidency. On Saturday, he told a crowd: “Your 401(k)s, you all look like a bunch of geniuses — thank you, Donald, very much.” So far, that’s worked, because economic growth has continued under Trump, and indeed accelerated after the massive stimulus of a tax cut and spending increase.

But the Fed’s been raising interest rates — partly because Trump’s massive stimulus during an expansion threatens to set off inflation.

China’s economy is unstable, partly because of Trump’s trade dispute.

The trade deficit with China hit a record in September, but Trump’s tariffs have hurt U.S. producers; Ford is planning workforce cuts due to $1 billion the tariffs have cost it.

Nothing will make Trump’s followers doubt his word that Mueller is on a witch hunt, global warming is a hoax and Democrats are a dangerous mob. But when the downturn comes, huge deficits, which Trump widened, leave the federal government with little power to cushion the fall. Even Trump’s supporters will see it’s not fake news — and that would be the end of him.

Trump needs reassurance — and Kudlow now plays the carnival barker’s carnival barker.

With cameras capturing a bill signing Wednesday, Trump introduced “the great Larry Kudlow. … The economy, Larry, how is it doing?”

“Couldn’t be better,” replied Kudlow.

It’s a message Kudlow has repeated:

Oct. 7: “Right now, the American economy is crushing it.”

Sept. 28: “We’re crushing it, we’re absolutely crushing it.”

Aug. 28: “America today is just crushing it everywhere.”

Aug. 17: “We’re crushing it. And people say this isn’t sustainable, it’s a one-quarter blip? It’s just nonsense.”

On Thursday, CNBC’s Jim Cramer tried to temper Kudlow’s mania, warning of a slowdown in key economic sectors, a peak in real estate, slower lending — “a pastiche that I’m concerned about.”

Kudlow brushed it off. “I’m just saying there’s so much good news out there that we shouldn’t just try to find a couple of numbers that don’t look great, okay? This is a heck of a story. Let’s embrace it.”

Sound familiar? “The Bush boom is alive and well,” Kudlow said before the 2008 crash, calling the economy “still the greatest story.”

Until it wasn’t.