President Donald Trump on Monday once again dismissed the economic concerns of the American people, claiming during a Fox News interview on “The Ingraham Angle” that the affordability crisis is “a con job by the Democrats” and the supposedly complicit media.
Laura Ingraham noted that the economy was “a top concern” for voters last week in key elections swept by Democrats, adding that the cost of beef, coffee and auto repairs has soared, prompting Trump to interrupt, “Sure, but they’re going to come down very shortly.”
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He then claimed nobody is actually concerned about rising prices.
“More than anything else, it’s a con job by the Democrats,” said Trump. “They’re saying, they just have this like, you know, they put out something, say, ‘Today, costs are up.’ They feed it to the anchors of ABC, CBS and NBC and a lot of other, you know, CNN, etc.”
Trump campaigned on lowering the cost of groceries and has repeatedly claimed over the course of his second term that prices are “way down.” Official data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, however, has shown a 2.7% increase since September of last year.
A new poll found that seven in 10 Americans say they pay more for groceries now than they did last year.
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Ingraham asked Trump if affordability is a “voter perception issue,” rather than a real concern requiring new policy or stronger messaging from Republicans. The president, as expected, agreed with the former and doubled down on his attacks against the press.
He argued that the term “manufactured” being used to criticize his claims about the economy is evidence of this supposed collusion with the Democratic Party, because “nobody uses that word,” and that the media does “exactly what they say” to attack him.
“It’s such a rigged system,” Trump continued. “So, are you ready? Costs are way down.”