Good Friday morning. I'm Jake Sherman and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing.

For the last few days, we've sensed a bit of dread among some otherwise sunny people in the Trump

universe. It's not that they're worried he's going to lose. It's also something much more fundamental.

They think he's blowing opportunity after opportunity. There isn't a ton of good news these days

with roughly 1,000 Americans dying every day of COVID-19 and a larger economic downturn likely in the short and long term, but politicians live in the moment. And here's the moment Donald Trump had Thursday. The economic picture was getting rosier with the GDP growing at a rate of 33.1% and new weekly jobless claims dropping to a fresh low

since the coronavirus started. Consider this idea, which was posed by Matt Grossman of Michigan

State on Twitter Thursday night. He basically said there was a chance that the GDP growth story

would be a big last-minute Trump boost, but it looks like now it's not even going to register.

He said the coverage is elsewhere, COVID fears are prevalent, the market reaction, news outlets

are not touting this as pure good news, and conservative media and Trump are preoccupied.

Campaigns are unpredictable and so little is within the candidates' control, but what you talk

about and how you talk about it is absolutely within your reach.

Just take a look at how Trump talked about the weekly jobless claims on Thursday.

He said they were boring.

Weekly jobless claims, this is boring, he said, but it is really good.

Just hit a seven-month low.

He then went on to talk about Fox News as John Roberts.

Trump on the GDP in Tampa.

You see the number today, 33.1 GDP, the biggest in history, almost by triple, right?

He then continued on talking about other items.

The president seems to believe Hunter Biden is a better closing message.

Here's Trump in Tampa.

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