By Jarrett Renshaw<\/p>\n
PHILADELPHIA, Dec 16 (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President JD Vance will travel to Pennsylvania\u2019s Lehigh Valley on Tuesday to highlight the administration\u2019s economic message, a week after President Donald Trump \u200bvisited the battleground state and delivered remarks that strayed from a focused economic pitch.<\/p>\n
The visit \u200cunderscores a broader White House effort to sharpen its economic message as Republicans look to retain power in the midterm elections, amid signs \u200cthat voter frustration over costs is undercutting the party\u2019s political standing despite upbeat rhetoric from the administration.<\/p>\n
Analysts say Vance\u2019s disciplined and policy-focused approach could allow him to make a stronger economic case than Trump, who excels with the party base but struggles to persuade beyond it.<\/p>\n
“Trump knows one thing: he speaks to the base well. JD \u2060Vance can actually stick to the subject \u200cand the prepared arguments. That’s impossible for Trump,” said Larry Sabato, a professor of political science at the University of Virginia.<\/p>\n
Trump visited a casino in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains \u200don December 9 to deliver what was billed as the first in a series of speeches by the president to address criticism that he was not paying sufficient attention to voters who say they are struggling with high prices.<\/p>\n
Instead, the 90-minute \u200bspeech veered into attacks on the word “affordability,” which Trump derided as a Democratic hoax to exaggerate the \u200ccost of living. While Trump did acknowledge that prices were high, he insisted the economy was booming and people were taking home more pay.<\/p>\n
U.S. economic growth remains steady, but inflation continues to pinch households. Wage gains have lagged behind living expenses for many Americans, leaving households under pressure.<\/p>\n
Vance is expected to tour a Uline distribution facility near Allentown before delivering remarks. Uline is owned by billionaire founders Liz and Dick Uihlein, who rank \u2060among Trump\u2019s biggest political donors, contributing tens of millions of \u200bdollars to his campaign and allied causes, according to campaign finance \u200brecords.<\/p>\n
Vance will be more focused on specific economic arguments and also try to draw more clearly from the world of right-wing political thought, said Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian \u200dat Princeton University.<\/p>\n
“There will be \u2060less focus from reporters on the style and erratic performance, and more on the arguments themselves,” he said.<\/p>\n
Zelizer said Vance may be better suited to make the case on economic policy, but the \u2060stakes are high for the administration and the Republican Party.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are struggling right now as the real-world impact of their economic policies \u200cdoesn\u2019t match the positive rhetoric that keeps coming from the administration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
(Reporting By Jarrett \u200cRenshaw; Editing by Caitlin Webber; Editing by Michael Perry)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jarrett Renshaw PHILADELPHIA, Dec 16 (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President JD Vance will travel to Pennsylvania\u2019s Lehigh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4784,33563,299,17366,33564,33565,28,30,29,368,24540],"class_list":["post-62445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-administration","tag-economic-arguments","tag-economic-policy","tag-jd-vance","tag-julian-zelizer","tag-larry-sabato","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}