Although publicly, Donald Trump and his advisers wave off any suggestion of a recession for the US economy the reality is quite different in private, according to a prominent Washington Post reporter.

As recently as last week at a rally in New Hampshire, Trump was boasting that even Americans who don’t like him would “have to” vote for him to keep the economy strong.

Likewise, such Trump economic advisers as Larry Kudlow and Peter Navarro have been making the rounds of TV interviews to proclaim a solid US economy and strong markets into 2020 and beyond.

“Privately our reporting has been he’s quite alarmed and rattled about some of these negative indicators that we’ve seen this week and over the past couple of weeks as well as what’s happening abroad with some of these foreign countries, foreign economies,” Post reporter Phil Rucker said of Trump. “And Trump is calling out to CEOs, to friends, to some of his real estate buddies trying to take their temperature and also voicing skepticism about some of the data that he’s seeing, saying some of these statistics are not to be believed because they’re cooked up by economists who have an anti-Trump bias. We will see how this plays out but it’s not a particularly good sign from some of his advisers.”

An economic downturn could seriously jeopardize Trump’s chances for a second term as president.

“We know the president’s advisors think that his reelection hinges on how the economy is performing and it needs to be a strong economy for him to win reelection,” NBC reporter Carol Lee said in a separate appearance. “His polls consistently show that his handling of the economy is approved of far more than whether his general approval or on any other issue.

“And you’ve also seen, whether it’s Republicans or people who sort of the hold-your-nose-and-vote-for-Trump crowd, they’ve stuck with him through some of the rhetoric, some of the things he’s done that they don’t like because they say, ‘Oh, you know, he does that, but look at the economy,'” she added. “And what happens to those folks? You know, do they stick with him? Do they turn on him? And it’s real risky for him.”

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