The latest economic news for the first quarter was a welcome announcement. Gross Domestic Product grew by 3.2%, better than any first-quarter numbers in four years and a full percentage point higher than predicted by most economists. All this despite the longest government shutdown in history, an ongoing trade war with China, and anemic stock-market performance to close out 2018.

The economy is humming along better than many would have thought. It’s good news for manufacturers, investors, and workers. It should be good news for President Donald Trump as well — strong economies are frequently the road to reelection. That being the case, the only people not happy with last week’s GDP numbers are leftists.

Democrats will do anything to keep Trump from reelection. And now that their hopes of yanking him out of office in some sad attempt to gin up a collusion charge with Russia have all but failed, they are going to try to manipulate the message to make it seem as if the economy is in fact on the verge of tanking.

This is not an easy task. Even The New York Times, NPR, and CNN have to grudgingly admit that the strong first-quarter numbers can only be interpreted as an economy approaching full steam.

There are many reasons for the strong economic performance. The tax cuts that Democrats said would only benefit the rich have led to working Americans taking home more money in every paycheck. Trump’s aggressive trade stance with China, Mexico, Canada, and the EU that Dems said would crater American manufacturing have actually boosted American companies and led to a hiring binge that has brought millions of people back to work who spent much of the Obama years on the sidelines or underemployed. A sustained rollback of Obama-era regulations has also freed up businesses to do what they do best — make products, expand, and make money.

The Left has fought against Trump’s actions to improve the economy since the day he took office. In fact, Democrats want a recession because they know a bad economy could defeat Trump in 2020.

This is the level to which the modern Democrat Party has fallen. Democrats cannot win in the war for ideas, so they actively work for economic harm to befall their fellow countrymen in order to seize the White House. Does that sound like a political party that has the best interests of the middle class and the poor in mind? Not for one moment.

Paul Krugman, Larry Summers, and other leftists posing as economists have done their best to downplay the good economic news and put a negative spin on Trump’s economic policies. They have repeatedly predicted disaster, and they have been repeatedly proven wrong.

In the face of this annoying good news, the Leftmedia has turned to pollaganda in an attempt to change people’s minds and hopefully bring on a recession by force of will. In just one example, The Washington Post released the results of a poll purporting to show that the good economic times are not being felt by many Americans.

A general rule: Polls are not to be trusted. Any organization with an agenda — like The Washington Post for instance — can construct a poll to deliver the desired results. In this case, these activists posing as journalists are looking to make the economic recovery appear to be a mirage that is not reaching most Americans.

(The Leftmedia did the same thing with tax refunds.)

Facts say differently, though. Women, blacks, and Hispanics are all doing better economically than they have in years, in some cases ever. This inconvenient truth, like other good economic news, either must be refuted by leftists with cleverly designed polls, or remain unreported altogether.

The truth will set us free. However, the Left has a firm grip on the news media, which makes the truth rather difficult to come by. That poses a problem when it comes to the economy. Perception is a powerful force in the marketplace. If enough bad news is reported, regardless of its basis in reality, it can make investors skittish, and it can prevent people from parting with disposable income. For this reason, it is entirely conceivable that a recession could be started through the power of media suggestion alone. And while President Trump won’t get credit in the media for a good economy, you can bet if a recession does kick in, they will put the blame squarely at his feet.