The US is factually not in a recession. Pointing this out is not being elitist nor is it "not listening to Americans". There's clearly a huge misunderstanding of what the word recession means coupled with a serious disinfo problem.
The thing is all of this doesn't really matter.
Because what matters is purchasing power and if people feel life goods are becoming more expensive and if the party in power ignores purchasing power of people (which also drives economy) than people will start to believe there is a recession, because well for them it is.
It also seems to differ from state to state whether there is a recession or not. Someone pointed out than the Sun Belt states are in a recession while the Midwestern states are less so.
Eventually some people will vote with their wallet and compare 2016-2020 to 2020-2024 and they'll eventually go with Trump because of that.