As prices keep climbing and sentiment keeps sinking, Donald Trump rewrote reality in his latest Fox interview. The grocery aisles say one thing about the economy, but his teleprompter says another. Guess who he thinks is correct?
Trump went on Fox’s Ingraham Angle on Monday and declared, “We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had.” When Laura Ingraham gently pointed to public anxiety, he waved it off as “fake polls.” His fantasy didn’t stop there; he also promised falling prices and trillions rolling in thanks to tariffs. We’re officially at a new low where a president is insisting that public perception, not prices, is the problem.
“I don’t know that they are saying [that]. I think polls are fake. We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had. We will have over $20 trillion coming to our economy and it’s largely because of my election, but it’s also largely because of tariffs.”
But reality is not cooperating with his fantasies. Prices are still rising year over year. The latest Consumer Price Index shows headline inflation running about 3% on a 12-month basis through September (via BLS). Food is up roughly the same pace, and the national average on gasoline hovers around $3.07–$3.12 per gallon, not $2 (via AAA). And it is certainly not “falling” in any way that consumers feel at the pump.
Public sentiment is also near recessionary lows. The University of Michigan’s index fell to 50.3 in November, close to its pandemic trough. Households are bracing for stubborn inflation ahead, and it’s not a “vibes” problem. It’s a wallet problem. Meanwhile, jobs and growth aren’t bad on paper, but they’re not the fairy tale either. The Chicago Fed shows the October unemployment rate at roughly 4.4%, the highest in four years (via Reuters).
Even as GDP prints solid quarters, it isn’t making American lives any easier. Rent, insurance, groceries, and car repairs are what run their household, not an index of equities. And then there’s the tariff magic. Trump repeated that “trillions and trillions” would flow in. He also claimed that a Supreme Court loss on his emergency-power tariffs would be a “disaster.” Though he said he’ll “figure something out” even if he loses.
“It’d be a disaster for our country. Now will I do something? I’ll figure something out because I do. That’s what I do in life.. I figure things out.”
What Trump really needs to figure out is the ground reality. His gaslighting has become a pattern, and people are tired of it. He has been saying “greatest economy ever” for years, but citizens keep suffering. If energy, interest rates, and prices were truly “down,” people wouldn’t need a TV segment to notice. They’d see it in their bills, yet social media responses proved they don’t.
One user on X wrote, “I find it insulting when Trump keeps telling me grocery costs are down.” Another asked, “Has T ever been to a grocery store in his life and bought groceries?” Their patience is gone, as one declared, “Trump is going to gaslight us into extinction.” Shoppers who just saw eggs, beef, or auto work climb 20–30% aren’t buying a televised pep talk.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
