Aides pushing Trump into Oval Office address to clean up last week’s speech: reporter

President Donald Trump’s underwater with voters on every major issue, and CNN’s Jeff Zeleny discussed how that’s shaping White House policy.

The 79-year-old president faces strong disapproval across the board – with negative ratings on immigration, foreign policy, the economy and other issues – and Zeleny told “CNN News Central” that steadily declining support has his advisers worried.

“There’s no doubt they are, because history is always a guide for any White House, and we’ve heard President Trump in recent weeks talking a lot about history, particularly how presidents fare in midterm elections,” Zeleny said. “He really is bringing it up in many appearances in the Oval Office, in the cabinet room, saying, ‘I can’t quite figure out why presidents and their parties always seem to lose seats in the midterm elections.’ So there’s no doubt that they are looking at that.”

“But of course, this president, like many others before him, think that they can be the one to defy the odds here,” Zeleny added. “It’s one of the reasons that President Trump is addressing the nation tonight. The White House advisers hope he talks about the economy, hope he talks about his policies and how they’re trying to help bring down prices. But that jobs report yesterday and the unemployment rate now at 4.6 percent really complicates all of this for the president.”

Trump’s advisers are hoping this address fares better than last week’s speech in Pennsylvania, where he veered off script and insisted the economy was good, claimed affordability was a Democratic “hoax” and made blatantly racist remarks about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).

“So, look, we saw the president out in the country last week talking about the economy a little bit, but talking about everything else for about an hour and a half,” Zeleny said. “Tonight is a 15-minute scripted address likely from the Oval Office, so he’ll talk more about the economy. The question is, are people going to feel some of these changes? Are his policies actually going to do anything to bring about lower prices or lowering inflation? That’s very much an open question here as the economy is weighing heavy on everyone’s mind.”