President Trump came to power promising to restore prosperity to the American hinterland, railing against politicians who have been grabbing the economic goods for themselves: "Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth," he said in his inaugural address.
New data from the Brookings Institution suggests that in terms of job growth, Trump was on to something. Big cities in general have been doing quite well since 2010, medium cities less well, while rural areas and smaller towns and cities really have been left behind:
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But there's a catch. As you can see from the graph, there's no sign that Trump has turned around this trend, which continued steadily through 2017. As Greg Sargent, who requested the Brookings analysis, writes, "there isn't any particular reason to think that [Trump's] tax cuts — or the new tariffs — will make a big dent in these regional disparities."
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