His friend Randy Turk, a retired attorney, told me that he felt the new administration would follow a similar path to reduce inflation no matter who wins.
„It’s not like a different president really makes that much of a difference,” he said.
For most of her time as vice president, Ms. Harris fought for prominence and media coverage. Previously this was seen as a weakness. But if she can emerge untainted by “bitenomics,” that may be one of her greatest strengths.
New York Times polling editor Ruth Igielnick says the latest data she collected shows that „voters are more tied to Joe Biden than negative feelings about the economy.”
Speaking to me on the BBC’s Americast podcast, he explained that in his polls Mr Trump is still favorable on the economy, but he once held an 18-point lead over Mr Biden.
„It makes me think that voters don’t necessarily associate their feelings about the economy with that,” he said.
A separate poll conducted this week for the Financial Times and the University of Michigan Rose School of Business found Ms. Harris has a narrow lead over Trump in whom Americans trust to handle the economy.
Not surprisingly, Republicans are publicly pleading with Trump to focus on issues, particularly the economy, and stop making personal attacks against Ms. Harris.
In a speech this week, Trump told supporters he was going to talk about the economy, but struggled to stay on topic.
„They say it’s the most important thing,” he said, „they” referring to his advisers and strategists who believe it’s his strongest attack.
„I’m not sure about that. But they say it’s very important,” he added, before listing immigration, crime and the way Ms. Harris was laughing. You could practically hear her campaign managers pulling their hair out.
„Voters don’t care about personalities or whether they draw big crowds,” said Matt Terrill, former chairman of Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign.
„Independent, undecided, swing voters in key states care about the economy and inflation, so focus on those key issues,” he said.
„Focus on talking about how you’re going to improve the lives of Americans over the next four years.”
In 1992, Democrat Jim Carville coined the slogan „It’s the economy, stupid” while working on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign.
The advice is that every campaign sticks. But Trump, this time, seems unusually hard to stick with.
That should be a winner for him. After all, according to a Financial Times poll, „Are you better off now than when I was president?” answered his question. Only 19% of voters say they are.