Trump’s most enduring economic legacy may not rest in the numbers, but in how he has shifted the conversation around the economy. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/business/economy/trump-economy-manufacturing.html?smid=tw-share

No matter who wins, economic policy is likely to pay more attention to American jobs and industries threatened by China and other foreign competition and less attention to worries about deficits caused by government efforts to stimulate the economy.

By ignoring economic and political orthodoxies, Trump managed to successfully marry seemingly contradictory or inconsistent positions to win over both hard-core capitalists and the working class.

he scrambled party positions on key issues like immigration and globalization, and helped topple sacred verities about government debt....

He took a Republican Party that preached free trade, low spending and debt reduction and transformed it into one that picked trade wars even with allies, ran up record-level peacetime deficits and shielded critical social programs from cuts....

The Democrats changed in turn, embracing protectionist policies they had once abandoned.

But in the end, it may turn out that Trump's most significant impact on economic policy is not one that he intended: overturning the conventional wisdom about the terrible effect of government deficits.