How Trump Can Win on the Economy

AFTER countless days of getting bogged down in foolish battles followed by imploding poll numbers, Donald Trump is wising up, his advisers tell me (again). Trump will give a speech Monday on the economy that, his campaign hopes, will prove once and for all he’s a man of substance who knows what’s ailing the nation and how to fix it.

Based on some of the speech content I’ve heard, I hope The Donald sticks to it. Because if he does, he should have at least a fighting chance in November against Hillary Clinton.

I’m sure the Democrats’ talking points will be revised to show that Friday’s jobs report — highlighted by better-than-expected employment numbers — means the economy is less of a concern for voters. Clinton might now think she can run on President Obama’s economic agenda of higher taxes, massive regulations and class warfare — since, she can plausibly say, it’s not killing the economy.

But that would be a mistake. The dirty secret of Friday’s jobs report (and the Obama economy in general) is that, yes, jobs are being created, but the nearly historic levels of people who have dropped out of the la- bor force continue. Obama’s supposed economic boom is creating a lot of lousy lowpaying and part-time jobs.

Meanwhile economic growth, hampered by Obama’s regulatory and taxing schemes, remains anemic. Thus any employment gains we’re seeing now may not last.

Despite the media cheerleading for Clinton’s mimicry of Obamanomics, the American people know that crushing business isn’t a good thing for the economy even if it feels good to bash a Wall Street fat cat from time to time. They see it in their lousy wage growth and still dismal job prospects; they see it in the societal problems like the opioid epidemic sweeping communities — an epidemic that has its roots in their economic maladies.

This is why for all his faults, Trump is still in this presidential race.

Monday’s speech — if he sticks to the script — should do much to show that Trump will reverse the economic insanity of the last eight years. He’d lower taxes and lift the tax and regulatory burden on businesses so they can start hiring again.

I am told the Dodd-Frank regulatory fi- asco, which has suffocated large banks and hampered their ability to lend to businesses and private individuals, will come in for a special drubbing. As a real-estate developer, Trump has been wheeling and dealing with banks for years, so he knows how they’re run.

That doesn’t mean Trump wants to return to the old days when banks did whatever they wanted and got bailed out by the feds after they screwed up. His advisers tell me Trump would like to bring back the Depressionera law known as GlassSteagall, which separated banks’ risk-taking investment banking from their lending and deposit arm.

I can’t tell you how much of Trump’s banking ideas will make it into the speech’s final draft, but his sentiment is sound: Obama and Clinton like banks that are big, highly regulated and virtual wards of the state. Trump believes less regulated smaller banks are in the best position to take risks without blowing up the economy.

Of course, Trump could always veer offscript; he could start talking about trade and his inane theory that the North Ameri- can Free Trade Agreement, and trade deals like it, are the root cause of working-class factory jobs leaving the United States when, in fact, such trade deals, while far from perfect, help bolster employment.

Or he could promote gimmicks like an Obama-esque infrastructure spending plan or tax credits for child care — both issues he likes but which are only marginally helpful when it comes to economic growth.

Thankfully, he is unlikely to pick another fight with GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan now that he has belated endorsed Ryan’s re-election campaign. And who knows with The Donald? He might go after some army vet’s father who said something he didn’t like, or the heritage of a judge on one of his private lawsuits. He is, unfortunately, easily distracted.

But if he wants to win the election, he’ll stay on message. Trump will make his speech and the rest of his campaign about job-killing taxes and regulations, and how the Obama-Clinton way of running the economy is squeezing the lifeblood out of it.

If he does that, he has a shot to win in November.