Trump Denies Your Cost-of-Living Pain

President Trump calls affordability a con job. According to the Times, President Trump is now dismissing America's cost of living pain as a political trick, even as polling shows his economic edge slipping. At a Cabinet meeting, Trump called affordability a fake narrative. At a con job, claiming Democrats invented the issue to fool the public. He said, they just say the word. It doesn't mean anything to anybody. He also insisted, I inherited the worst inflation in history. There was no affordability. Nobody could afford anything. Those comments clash sharply with his recent branding of himself as the affordability president, something he said just last week. Bragging that groceries and other prices are coming down. Trump argued that inflation is at a, quote, very good level and will drop further. While acknowledging there's still more to do. Vice President J.D. vance blamed Democrats for high cost and predicted the economy will really take off in 2026. So what's the real message here? You can't run for president on the platform of, I'm going to make things more affordable and bring inflation down and then 11 months later, have inflation go up and, and say, hey, this affordability thing is all. The con job doesn't work that way. Let's dig a little bit deeper here. So a couple of things. Let's just do some fact checking. The President mentioned that he inherited an economy that had the worst inflation ever. Well, not true by a long shot. Inflation was higher under Nixon, under Carter, under Reagan. Inflation at the time of the election last year when Biden was president was 2.4%, still higher than what people like. Generally, the Fed likes around 2%. Yes, it had been higher in earlier years, but inflation was going down drastically, rapidly, almost to the point of hitting that magical 2% which the Fed seems to. It's that, that, that Goldilocks, not too hot, not too cold level where most economists won our economy, it was a 2.4%. Now, today, according to the most recent data that has come out from reputable sources, inflation in the United States is 3%. To be fair, by historical standards, 3% is pretty good. It's really not that high. We're not talking about, you know, Germany in the 40s when it was, you know, 100% plus, or Argentina. 3% is not bad. The problem, of course, is Trump ran on the platform of, you know, day one, I'm going to get rid of all inflation. And only a week or two ago, when he saw so many Democratic politicians running for office on the platform of affordability, which happened in New Jersey, which happened in New York City, which happened in Virginia, he said, well, I'm going to climb aboard that train. Everybody's talking about this. The gettin's good. Let me hop into that as well. And now here he is, really just a few days later, saying, it's Kun Job, a fraud, a Democratic fraud. And I guess his answer to you is if you say, hey, I'm opening my wallet, I don't have any money left to get me to the end of the month, he could just tell you, well, I guess you're a member of the lunatic left. If you think you have less money, maybe it's just a mirage. So if you want to tell yourself that, or try paying your rent with pretend money and tell your landlord that they're a part of the lunatic left because they want more money, I guess you could try that. I don't think it's going to be very effective. Let's look at some more facts of the issue here surrounding this issue. So again, just days earlier, Trump proclaimed, I am the affordability president, touting lower drug prices and cheaper groceries. Old groceries are not cheaper. Now, is it possible anything in your grocery cart could be less expensive than a year ago? Sure, it's possible. But on average, prices have gone up with your groceries. Again, he says he inherited the worst inflation in history. Well, I think Ronald Reagan might beg to differ on that one. J.D. vance urged arguments to look in the mirror if they want to talk affordability and predicted a strong 2026 economy. First of all, what does that mean? Because J.D. vance, to his credit and Trump's credit and everyone on their party, they won. They control the federal government, they control the executive branch, they control the House, they control the Senate, actually control the Supreme Court, too. So anything that's good happening in our economy, they deserve all the credit. They'll certainly take all the credit. They should look in the mirror for the credit for anything good happening. But it also means they need to look in the mirror for any bad news. Certainly, let's say, hypothetically, inflation. We're now at 1.5% and inflation had gone in a relatively short period from 2.4%, which is where it was last November, to 1.5% today. Hypothetically, I guarantee there's few guarantees in life. I'll give you this or your money back. J.D. vance and Trump and every Republican would be saying, see, we told you so. We told you our strategies, our philosophies, our methods would decimate inflation. And we were right. And I would be right here telling you, you know what? They were right. I was dubious that they would cut Almost an entire percentage off of inflation. But they did it. They took it from 2.4% to 1.5%. But that's not what happened. The other guarantee I will give you or your money back is if any Democrat in December of 2025 were to stand up and say, well, yes, inflation's now 1.5%. It's dropped almost a percent. But that's because of Biden's old policies of why inflation has now gone down a percent. That person would be mocked, ridiculed, probably tarred and feathered, called a lunatic of some sort. Far left, far right, far up, far down. They'd be called a lunatic if they tried to take credit for inflation going down. And yet somehow JD Vance wants Democrats to take credit for inflation being up but not down, and he doesn't want any credit at all for himself for inflation going up. Folks, this is classic mixed messaging, muddled messaging. And it's one reason why you see the polling numbers cratering for Trump regarding his handling of the economy. Inflation is the economy. To many people, inflation is high. Even if you got a job, you feel like the economy is awful because your purchasing power is going down. And maybe you can't even pay rent or feed your family this month. So that's the problem with inflation. And like it or not, Mr. Trump, President Trump, Republicans, you own the economy now. I mean, you got it all. Let's give credit where credit's due. You convinced Americans to vote for you, to give you the keys to the store. You're running everything. So if inflation goes to zero and unemployment goes to zero and everybody becomes a crypto billionaire, you get all the credit you do. You'll deserve it if things get worse. Don't be whiny little babies. And so it's still the Biden. It's Biden's fault, it's the Democrats fault, because it's not convincing anyone now to be fair. And I'm fair here. I'm a sane, sensible, centrist. President Trump so far is not showing signs of losing support among registered Republicans. About eight out of 10, eight and a half out of 10, still say they love him. So he's really not showing much erosion or overall support. But if you scratch the polling data a little and ask them, okay, you may support the president now and you may think, yeah, I never vote for a Democrat, fine, but do you support how he's managing the economy? That's when it's like, no, not so much. That's what's eroding. And the significance of that is, people may still emotionally cling to the idea of I like one party, not the other. But if they're so convinced you're doing a poor job on policy, they might just stay home on Election Day. They might not be as excited, they might not be as motivated to vote. And one of the things we've seen in the elections last week and in 2025 is the Democrats do seem to be very angry and motivated. And turnout is sky high, certainly was in New York city. Again, Trump. J.D. vance no Republican ever has to win New York City for them to completely control the country. But it is a sign of where the anger is flowing, where the urgency is flowing. Don't listen to me. Listen to Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who has been shouting very loudly to his fellow Republicans in the last month that they need to beware, they need to be really careful going into the 2026 elections. Because Ted Cruz is a savvy politician, and he says his sense is that the anger is much more focused on the Democratic side now. And it's not helping that Trump's own base, even if they still support him, do not feel really good about his management of the economy.