With 8 in 10 Americans opposed to his handling of inflation, Trump turns to weird happy talk

President Donald Trump is insisting that prices are falling even as polling shows overwhelming public disapproval of his handling of the cost of living. MS NOW reports that an Associated Press survey released last week found 82% of Americans disapprove of his performance, while recent CNN and Marquette University Law School polls each put disapproval at 80%.

Trump has nonetheless told a Monday night rally in Nebraska that prices are falling and will drop sharply once a war ends. Days earlier he said he had done nothing but lower prices, and he posted that they were dropping rapidly. MS NOW's Steve Benen says inflation has actually risen since Trump's second term began and that consumers are not seeing the improvements he describes.

Administration officials have offered similar assurances. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNN's Jake Tapper that real unhappiness would appear in the data; Tapper answered that it seems to be, just not in the figures Hassett cites. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Axios's Mike Allen the administration would not imitate Biden officials in telling Americans how good they had it, which Benen says contradicts his colleagues' own messaging.

Summarized by PolitiKool from MS NOW’s reporting. Read the full story at MS NOW →