Mara Liasson

In one word, appeal.

In other words, Norman Vincent Peale, which is power of positive thinking, the pastor who Donald Trump grew up listening to.

Because the idea here is that the economy is something that a lot of people have been saying is not good.

And yet here's Donald Trump turning around and saying the country is in the midst of a turnaround.

His poll numbers are at a nadir of this second term in office.

You know, in many respects, there's a should be a five alarm fire for his presidency.

And instead, he's saying, again, with dignity and pride, achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before.

Boasted of a soaring stock market, gas prices coming down.

And yet people aren't saying that's what they're feeling.

I'd like to meet the person who had that conversation with President Trump.

It seems to me that he has this artifice that he creates, this framework, often about these kinds of stories that people are saying to him, generals saying, sir.

Crying.

Can't believe they're crying.

They want to kiss him.

This is a, you know, it's a thing that he does for the flair of the dramatic in saying that it's real.

But clearly, look,

This is what Trump is about, right?

I mean, it's about, quote unquote, winning.

And I say, quote unquote, not because it's the quote that he's saying, but because it doesn't matter if you're actually winning.

It matters if you're presenting it to people in a way where you're winning the argument about potentially winning or not.