Here’s an idea for a big-budget action-adventure movie: A young, plucky American expat is boozing away in the Himalayas, relying on her wits (and liver) to survive. Her father died, and she’s all on her own. Then — completely out of the blue — her long-lost lover (and her father’s ex-colleague) returns. Soon, her business burns to the ground, bad guys chase them halfway around the world; she’s kidnapped (twice) but escapes, and the two rekindle their romance. Then, in the climax, the face of God is revealed — all the bad guys are punished — and she lives happily ever after in the United States.
If the story sounds vaguely familiar, it should: It’s the plot to “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” only from the perspective of Indiana Jones’ girlfriend, Marion Ravenwood.
Pinsker Law of PR #21: Sometimes, when your perspective changes, everything sounds new and different. (Even when it’s still fundamentally the same thing!)
And this brings us to the Trump tariffs. It hasn’t been getting much media attention, but they’re generating astronomical sums of money — leading to America’s first budget surplus in a decade:
🚨 BREAKING: In a bombshell announcement, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent disclosed that the U.S. has achieved its first June budget surplus since 2015, amassing “MASSIVE” tariff income of $27 billion last month.
President Trump economic policies are Making America Wealthy.🔥 pic.twitter.com/gELI06v44z
— TRUMP ARMY (@TRUMP_ARMY_) July 27, 2025
That’s $27 billion per month, or roughly $300 billion a year.
The 2026 midterms are creeping up, and the GOP is facing steep historic headwinds. The overwhelming majority of the time, the party in power takes it on the chin — and with the House so narrowly divided, it wouldn’t take much to give the Democrats the majority.
That would mark the end of Trump’s legislative agenda.
The stakes are high: If the Democrats win in 2026, Trump will spend his final two years facing subpoenas and harassment from AOC, Jasmine Crockett, Ilhan Omar, and the rest of the radicals. There’ll be (more) impeachments, (more) show trials, (more) lawfare, and (more) congressional interference.
But there’s a solution.
Right now, stories about Jeffrey Epstein are everywhere. That rich, creepy pedo is dominating the news cycle, much to the annoyance of the president.
But barring a bombshell revelation, the Epstein controversy won’t be a top-five issue in the 2026 midterms. That’s not what people care about.
And yeah, I know there are exceptions: Some people care intensely about Epstein. (I’d imagine there’s considerable overlap among the QAnon true-believers in Trump’s first term and the Epstein diehards in his second.) If you’re someone who’s invested emotional capital in the Epstein story, you’re not going to be satisfied without a long line of celebrities being arrested, perp-walked, and thrown in jail.
I get it.
Right now, Epstein has the loudest voices — but not the most voices. Intensity and popularity aren’t the same thing, although they’re easily confused online.
Most Americans care far more about their pocketbook.
And that’s why I’m less concerned over the Epstein blowback than I am over Trump’s economic numbers. This is a story that ran in The Hill last week: “Nearly two-thirds disapprove of Trump’s handling of inflation: Survey.”
Nearly two-thirds of Americans disapprove of how President Trump has handled inflation — one of his key campaign promises — a poll has found six months into his second term.
The CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday also found that half of U.S. adults think the Trump administration’s policies have made them “financially worse off,” and 62 percent think the White House’s policies have driven food and grocery costs up.
I’m not surprised: Trump’s tariffs were disruptive and new. The Democratic Party and the mainstream media dedicated their PR resources to connecting them to inflation and higher prices, demonizing tariffs as an unfair burden on American families.
Now, whenever prices are too high, the media and/or Democrats have a go-to whipping boy: Trump’s tariffs.
The Trump administration needs to change this narrative ASAP. If they wait too long, it’ll calcify before the midterms, be accepted as Gospel, and guarantee a Democratic takeover.
Part of the problem lies in how tariffs function. The American people see the impact of tariffs through higher prices or disruptions, but they don’t really see the benefits. That $27 billion we netted in tariffs last month? How much of it helped your neighbor? Or your family?
Trump needs to change our perspective on tariffs, connecting them to affordability and the creation of good-paying jobs. It’s how we win the midterms.
Here’s what he should do:
In a national, primetime speech, Trump should follow his April 2, 2025, “Liberation Day” address with a “Victory Day” celebration.
Remind Americans that, while the Democrats were battling tooth-and-nail to preserve the status quo, Trump understood that there’s an affordability crisis in our country: Housing is too expensive. There aren’t enough good-paying jobs. Young people can’t afford to start families anymore.
The American Dream was about to collapse.
For too many years, foreign countries exploited American generosity, flooding our marketplace with so many subsidized products, it was easier for businesses to stock their shelves with foreign goods than American-made products. That gave us lots of cheap, plastic crap, but it came at a steep cost:
We sacrificed our manufacturing base, good-paying jobs, and key industries to the false god of globalism.
It was great for some shareholders, but devastating to workers. Young people in particular were absolutely decimated, priced out of their own cities.
No more: Last month alone, our tariffs brought in $27 billion. That averages over $300 billion a year!
Under the old status quo, American taxpayers had to fund everything. Now, we’re on pace to bring in over $3 trillion in foreign revenue over the next decade!
Best of all, the American people haven’t paid a dime in new taxes. All that money was generated by tariffs, with the host countries and/or companies eating the cost, while we collected hundreds of billions a year.
But this is the people’s money. It belongs to all of us. And that’s why the President could be delighted to announce the 80%-20% “Victory Dividend.”
He could say, “I’m asking congress to send me a bill ASAP, where 80% of our tariff revenue is allocated to paying down the federal debt, but 20% is immediately spent to Make America Affordable Again.”
Then he could add, “This is a huge amount of money. Twenty percent of $300 billion is $60 billion a year! I want to spend that money to help rebuild American manufacturing plants. We’re going to make it easier for American companies to hire American workers. And we’re gonna make housing more affordable. Congratulations, America! You earned it!”
It’s a PR pivot: Instead of making “fairness” the reason for tariffs, we’re framing them as both an incredible success AND the solution to the affordability crisis.
Strategically, it prevents the Democrats from running on the economy or affordability. Without a counter-message of their own, they’d have to pivot to Epstein, paranoia, TDS, and defending the old status quo.
Good luck with that.
‘Cause Epstein and TDS won’t be enough to win a majority. It’s still “the economy, stupid.” No matter what the Epstein fanboys say — no matter how hysterical the Democrats’ TDS gets — pocketbook issues are gonna rule the roost in 2026.
Same as they have in every other election.
Thanks to the stunning ineptitude in the Democratic Party, where 63% of voters view it unfavorably, the GOP has a very real opportunity to overcome the historic headwinds and actually win the ‘26 midterms. Right now, it’s very much within Republicans’ grasp.
It’ll just require a slight change in perspective.
One Last Thing: The Democrats are on the ropes, but make no mistake: The donkeys are still dangerous. 2025 will either go down in history as the year we finally Made America Great Again — or the year it all slipped through our fingers. We need your help to succeed! As a VIP member, you’ll receive exclusive access to all our family of sites (PJ Media, Townhall, RedState, Twitchy, Hot Air, Bearing Arms): More stories, more videos, more content, more fun, more conservatism, more EVERYTHING! And if you CLICK HERE and use the promo code FIGHT, you’ll receive a Trumpian 60% discount!
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