A talking point has taken hold in the final hours of midterm election campaigning. The economy is booming, the story goes, but President Trump won't talk about it at his massive rallies, preferring instead to dwell on illegal immigration, the caravan, and "fear." Republicans, locked in tough re-election races, are tearing their hair out, panicked, at Trump's refusal to emphasize the nation's economic progress, which is their strongest campaign pitch.

The journalists and other political types who are repeating the talking point take as their text something Trump said Friday at a rally in Huntington, W.Va. "They all say speak about the economy, speak about the economy," Trump told the crowd. "Well, we have the greatest economy in the history of our country, but sometimes it's not as exciting to talk about the economy, right? Because we have a lot of other things to talk about." From that flowed the assertion that Trump is not, in fact, talking about, or talking much about, the economy.

"The economy is booming," CNN's Jake Tapper said Sunday in an interview with Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. "Unemployment is at a 49-year low. Annual wage growth topped three percent for the first time since 2009. But -- and you knew there was a 'but' – the president's closing message is not on that. It's centered on scaring people about undocumented immigrants. Would you personally feel more comfortable if this closing argument was focusing more on the positive, on the achievements, instead of incendiary appeals that people should fear undocumented immigrants?"

[Related: Unemployment dips to 3.7 percent - lowest in nearly 50 years]

On NBC, Chuck Todd said, "I've got to show you what Donald Trump said about talking about the economy, though. It was something else. Take a listen to what he said about why he doesn't talk about the economy..."

On ABC, Jonathan Karl said, "With a president presiding over an economy as good as this one, you would expect there to be almost a morning in America message, stay the course, the economy's booming, let's keep with this. But instead it is midnight in America in Trump's campaign rallies. He is counting on fear and loathing to rally his base." A moment later, ABC's George Stephanopoulos added, "Let's bring in Chris Christie, Republican, former governor of New Jersey, Trump ally as well. Address the – the argument that Jon Karl was making there. Is it wise to be focusing on this when you've got an economy going gangbusters?"

On CBS, John Dickerson said that McDaniel, the RNC chair, "wants to talk about the economy and the strong numbers. The president wants to talk about something else."

Finally, on Fox, Chris Wallace said, in an interview with GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, "Senator, Republicans have a great story to tell in the economy, but the president doesn't seem especially focused on that."

And so on. Print articles made the same point, reinforcing still more repetitions of the talking point. But lost in it all was a question: Is the president really not talking about the economy? Is he focusing on illegal immigration and ignoring, or relatively ignoring, his own administration's economic achievements? The place to look for an answer is not in the TV talk but in the videos and transcripts of the president's actual stump speeches.

Look at three recent Trump appearances, the ones that served as the basis for all the weekend talk. First, there was Trump's speech in Huntington, with the "not as exciting" quote that gave pundits a theme. Then there was a speech in Columbia, Missouri, and also one in Macon, Georgia.

Please see here to see how much of the Huntington speech Trump devoted to the economy and how much he devoted to illegal immigration. By my count, Trump spoke about 2,330 words on economic issues and about 1,640 words on illegal immigration. I've included the entire transcript, with economic passages highlighted in yellow and illegal immigration passages highlighted in blue, for you to judge for yourself.



Please see here to see Trump's speech in Columbia. In that appearance, he spent more time on immigration relative to the economy, but he still addressed the economy a tiny bit more than illegal immigration, with about 1,880 words on the economy to about 1,870 on immigration.



Please see here to see Trump's speech in Macon. There, Trump actually spoke a little bit more about illegal immigration, at about 1,110 words, than about the economy, at about 1,220 words.



Add the three speeches together, and Trump spent about 5,320 words on the economy versus about 4,730 words on illegal immigration. One can think that is too much of one thing, or not enough of the other, but where is the evidence that Trump is ignoring the economy to obsess about illegal immigration?

One note on classification. It can sometimes be hard, with the president's speeches, to designate precisely which passages are about the economy, or which are about illegal immigration. Some are clear and easy to categorize. But what about when he talks about the need for more legal immigration to meet increased job demand due to the improving economy? Trump talked about that at some length in Columbia. Readers are free to quibble about how this or that passage has been characterized.

A final word on Trump's speeches. As always, they are all over the place. He talks a bit about this or that, sidetracks himself onto something else, and then moves back to the original topic before sidetracking himself again. It's a style that has proven extraordinarily successful with large and friendly audiences around the country. And of course, his speeches in Huntington, Columbia, and Macon were not only about the economy and illegal immigration. As one can see from the transcripts, Trump spent much, if not most, of his time on other topics altogether: on the Brett Kavanaugh nomination, on military and veterans' issues, on foreign affairs, on the local candidates, and other topics.

So the bottom line is, a look at Trump's speeches does not support the idea that they are "centered on scaring people about undocumented immigrants" or that the president "doesn't talk about the economy." Certainly a critic could say he spends too much time on one topic or the other. But as Trump himself said, there are a lot of things to talk about. And that is what he is doing.

