Trump sells.

Trump sells with conviction.  He tells people what to think.  He is taking same-old, calling it "New and Improved!".   

He is better at this than Obama was.

In the past three minutes on Fox News I saw two examples of the Trump administration doing forcefully what a persuasive narrator does.  He is telling people what they are seeing, thus shaping what they think they see.   Believing is seeing.  

Afghanistan policy.

Trump:  Bush-Obama policy a failure.

Donald Trump just announced a continuation of our policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  The policy has been one of the great failures of both George W. Bush and Barrack Obama.  All three presidents claim we are not "nation building" but are in fact attempting to shape a government in Afghanistan that will end the power of the Taliban and others to maintain a sanctuary for Islamic terror.   We are attempting to do it through proxies, with limited war, using drones on specific targeted people and groups.

For ten years authorities in Afghanistan have told us our policies and tactics create more damage than good.  It is a recruitment tool for our enemies.  Candidate Donald Trump described the situation vividly.  Get out of Afghanistan, he said.

Yesterday, he announced a major policy direction for Afghanistan and Pakistan--open ended continuation of the same policy.  He is presenting it as new, as sure to work, as an expression of American values and interests.

Fox is helping him sell the idea of "new."  The "Improved" element of the policy is that it will continue indefinitely.  Trump announced the policy in a speech read from a TelePrompTer without ad libs and asides.  It fit into the style of formal, serious addresses to the nation that presidents give at times of major policy changes.  From a policy point of view, it is more of the same, but it has huge political implications for Trump.  By announcing this as new, improved, Trump-made policy, forced on him by the demands of his office and the advice of his generals, he is now shouldering political responsibility for what happens next.

Afghanistan is now Trump's war, for better or worse.

Jobs and the Economy.

Michael Pence, in a Fox News interview this morning, summarized the extraordinary economic gains under Trump, one million new jobs created, he said, as contrasted with the "moribund economy" during the prior eight years.  And, in fact, there were some 1,074,000 new jobs in the economy over these past six months of the Trump presidency.  The country has come out of the financial crisis of 2008 and its aftermath of low asset values in stocks and housing, bank failures, foreclosures, and economic distress.

The economy is growing under Trump as the same pace it grew under Obama.  No change there.  But Trump is doing what Obama did not do.  Claim success.  

Not a turnaround.  A continuation of job growth under Obama.

Had Obama sounded upbeat it may have been interpreted as self-satisfied.  The economy was improving but it was not yet strong. For whatever reason, Obama did not counter the unified description as weak by GOP candidates for president.  Trump's inauguration in January started a new era, and Trump is defining it sharply as an new period of tremendous growth in jobs and the economy.  Things were terrible before, no job growth, and things are great now.  It all changed when he was elected.

A more accurate description is that Trump is now continuing the Obama rebound from the financial crisis.  Trump is taking charge of the message.  What you are seeing is a gigantic turnaround! What you are seeing is new and improved!

Again, for better or worse, this is Trump's opportunity and Trump's risk.  Trump has momentum on his side (unlike in Afghanistan) but by claiming the victory Trump is now shouldering the responsibility.  It is Trump's economy.

Trump is bolder than Obama and far more effective at shaping the narrative than was Obama.  Trump is telling us what we are seeing.  It is all great. 

This has bought Trump time.  But now the policies are his.