Jimmy Carter might be gone. But thanks to the efforts of MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, "malaise"—the word most associated with Carter's failed presidency—lives on. But now, of course, slapped on President Trump.
Wallace did her best to recycle the m-word on Thursday's edition of MSNBC's Deadline: White House, which she hosts.
Wallace brought on Michele Norris, a former co-host of NPR's All Things Considered (until her husband joined Obama's campaign), to doomsday prophesy that President Trump's economic moves would lead to "manufacturing slowdowns," and then "we start to get something called malaise in the economy."
Not only that, even if tariffs are reversed, Norris predicted "the malaise that has settled in around the chaos and the uncertainty in the economy is going to linger like a hangover, like a bad hangover for a very long time."
Wallace predictably agreed:
"We're seeing that malaise show up. It's actually hotter than that. And we're seeing anger in the town halls that Republicans are having."
In a fit of anticipatory schadenfreude, Wallace exulted:
"This hasn't really hit yet. And it's going to come in in waves that'll, that'll hit people, you know, as they're rolling a cart through a retailer. I mean, I, I cannot stress enough, having worked in politics, how perilous this moment is."
Oh Happy Day, Nicolle!
But it's odd that she would already be lecturing Team Trump about putting a happy face on the economy, that they can't "tell the truth or be empathetic, don't match people's lived realities." Late in the fall campaign of 2022, Wallace brought on Joy Reid and they suggested inflation was just not a real issue for Republicans to campaign on.
Note: There seems to be an NPR to MSNBC/CNN pipeline. Michele Norris, a former All Things Considered co-host, is now an MSNBC contributor. And over at CNN, Audie Cornish, another former All Things Considered co-host, is now host of CNN This Morning.
MSNBC
Deadline White House
5/2/35
4:10 pm EDTMICHELE NORRIS: When we get into the second and the third quarter, and David certainly knows probably much more about this than I do, but we're going to probably be looking at manufacturing slowdowns. And so that means layoffs. That means people, if they're not laid off, they're not pulling that extra shift. They're just scaling down their manufacturing. So people are going to start to feel this in all kinds of ways.
And on top of all that, then we start to get something called malaise in the economy. And people just don't have the kind of confidence that you would expect with the economy that Donald Trump inherited. And it's worth repeating that. He inherited a very strong economy. And even though people were concerned about the price of eggs and the price of rent and the price of cars and the price of gas and everything else, the fundamentals of the economy were essentially pretty strong. And people don't feel that way right now.
And so, even if he were to reverse the tariffs, even if we could get boats on the water and get equipment over here and get goods over here much quickly, much more quickly, the malaise that has settled in around the chaos and the uncertainty in the economy is going to linger like a hangover, like a bad hangover for a very long time.
NICOLLE WALLACE: You know, you're seeing it. I mean, we're seeing that malaise show up. It's actually hotter than that. And we're seeing anger in the town halls that Republicans are having. People are angry at everything from no due process for Kilmar Obrego Garcia. They're angry about DOGE.
And, it's sort of David's point. I mean, this hasn't really hit yet. And it's going to come in in waves that'll, that'll hit people, you know, as they're rolling a cart through a retailer. I mean, I, I cannot stress enough, having worked in politics, how perilous this moment is. When your message is, if they're not true and empathetic, which the Trump administration, I don't think if they were sitting here, would ever claim to do well, tell the truth or be empathetic, don't match people's lived realities.
And I really feel like we're at this tectonic break in everything that's come before it, where there will be no lie, there will be no right-wing disinformation, to spin the reality of things that people need becoming more expensive. Or if you're an Etsy small business, everything that you need to run your business or to embroider.
I mean, the whole sort of supply chain and ripple effects of this are either misunderstood or being ignored by the entire Republican Party.
