Trump Makes Desperate Pitch to Voters in 12:38AM Panic

President Donald Trump made a panicked “affordability” pitch to voters in a 12:38 a.m. social media post.

The 79-year-old, who usually dictates his Truth Social ramblings to a minion who then posts them, is clearly worried about the affordability crisis as his costly war in Iran rumbles on. He is so worried, in fact, that he has taken to alternative facts.

This statement is strewn with errors and misleading elements. While Trump’s 2017 tax law was one of the largest tax cuts in U.S. history by dollar value, economists and historians differ on whether it was the largest.

Secondly, the “$5,000 to $10,000 per family” bit is a projection rather than a fact.

The “falling prices across the board” element was the weakest of the factual claims. Firstly, prices do not appear to be falling “across the board,” and, as Trump knows, even if inflation slows, that means prices are rising more slowly, not necessarily declining.

The reality is that the American people are paying more for gas, groceries, and utilities, mostly due to the knock-on effect of the war in Iran and specifically the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

The Department of Labor’s latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report showed prices climbed 0.6 percent in April, lifting annual inflation from 3.3 percent to 3.8 percent—the highest year-over-year rate recorded during either of Trump’s terms in office.

The official line from the White House is that the struggle is a necessary, short-term sacrifice.

On Wednesday, during a Senate Finance Committee hearing, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessentcalled inflation under President Trump a “short-term blip.”

But voters aren’t convinced. President Trump’s approval rating on inflation has fallen sharply across three separate polls, highlighting voters’ concerns about an issue that was central to his successful bid to return to the White House.

Surveys from Marquette Law School, The Harris Poll and HarrisX, and The Economist/YouGov found Trump’s net approval rating on inflation at -56, -30, and -48, respectively.

This is bad news heading into the November elections. “I don’t care about the midterms,” Trump claimed last week.

However, a Democratic-controlled Congress in the final two years of his term is surely something he doesn’t want.

According to an Ipsos poll conducted late last month, just 29 percent of Americans approved of Trump’s overall handling of the economy. This is a lower rating than former President Joe Biden received at any point during his inflation-plagued term.