Trump struggles to tell the truth about the economy as Americans struggle to make ends meet | Editorial
The president used a West Coast trip to tout his economic record, ignoring the toll that rising gas, energy, and food prices continue to take on average Americans.
With his approval ratings hovering at near record lows, President Donald Trump took a rare trip to the West Coast to convince voters not to trust their own wallets, because the economy is better than ever.
Never mind that since he took office last year, Americans have been forced to spend more on food and rent. That utility prices are soaring while Trump slashed renewable energy alternatives. Or that thanks to his tariffs, the average price of a new car jumped 10%, while his failed war in Iran boosted gas prices by more than 30%.
To borrow a phrase from the last inept White House occupant who tried to buck up the masses amid a calamity: “Trumpie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”
To show hardworking Americans that the billionaire president feels their pain, Trump first attended a GOP fundraiser at a golf resort he owns in Rancho Palos Verdes, an affluent coastal city near Los Angeles, where a round of golf on the weekends can cost $800 or more. Tickets to the fundraiser ranged from $15,000 to $150,000.
From there, Trump headed to a casino in Las Vegas, where he gave a speech on the economy aimed at working families.
Nothing signals economic prosperity like the backdrop of folks mindlessly pumping money into a slot machine, or hoping to dig out of debt with the next roll of the dice — especially coming from a guy who made millions while bankrupting his now-defunct casinos in Atlantic City.
Trump’s Vegas speech was a yawning rehash of rhetoric touting the stock market (when only about half the country owns equities) and tax cuts in his costly Big Beautiful Bill, while mixing in the usual mistruths and dismissing the high prices squeezing many Americans struggling to make ends meet.
“We’re having some fake inflation because of the fuel,” he told the casino crowd.
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But it was in between the two stops where Trump provided a more revealing window into how he really thinks and talks, previewing his economic message in a friendly Fox News interview rife with non sequiturs, sentence fragments, and illeisms.
“In the economy, Trump is at 42%, I shouldn’t be at, we have the greatest economy maybe in the history of the world for any country,” he said.
Fox News personality Trace Gallagher pointed out that gas prices were up 30%, and that he recently paid $6.27 for a gallon of gas in California.
Even amid the muddle, Trump had a ready response for that: shift the blame. “It’s a little different thing — because they charge taxes on gas. Every time, every time it goes down, they take taxes. I mean, they’ve done a terrible job in California.”
Trump then promised gas prices would soon be under $3 a gallon once the three major oil companies — which have been making roughly $400 million a day since the Iran war began — lowered prices.
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“I think we’re going to have it coming down,” he said. “The oil companies have to start going. You know, they’re making too much money, and they’ve got to start lowering it. But we’re going to be down into the threes and maybe the twos pretty soon, per gallon.”
Gallagher then teed up a softball question so Trump could address the reason he schlepped across the country in the first place: “You’re here to talk about the economy. What’s your big message?”
“So, tariffs have been incredible. We’ve taken in hundreds of billions of dollars,” Trump said, ignoring the fact the government has had to refund most of the duties, which the U.S. Supreme Court determined were improperly collected. “I think if there’s anything, I’d say our country is rocking and rolling. We’ve never been this successful.”
Well, one person in America has definitely never been this successful. As a public servant, Trump made more than $2 billion last year on a lot of murky deals.
No wonder then that by the president’s grading curve, the economy is fine. Just ask him.
“The food, groceries, it’s all coming down. We’ve done a great job,” he said. “I think we should be given an A+ on the economy.”
Voters can submit their own midterm grades on Election Day.
