Will Trump’s “Right About Everything” B.S. Wreck Republicans?

President Trump constantly blusters as if he deserves the Nobel Prize for Economic Triumphs, just like he supposedly deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Last week in a speech in Iowa, he doubled down on his triumphs by referring to himself in the third person: “Just after one year of President Trump, our economy is booming…. Incomes are rising. Investment is soaring. Inflation has been defeated.”

Unfortunately, Trump’s record on the economy is as shaky as his claims that he ended 8 wars. Incomes are flat and most of the “soaring” investment is a figment of Trump’s imagination.

Trump has been schizophrenic on the issue of affordability, boasting of being the “AFFORDABILITY PRESIDENT” (his caps, not mine) and then denouncing affordability  as a “hoax” and a “Democrat scam.”  Did Trump reach this conclusion by surveying members of his Mar-a-Lago club or what?  Is Trump’s claim that affordability is a hoax more credible than his claim that the Epstein files were a hoax? (Tell that to Bill Gates ex-wife.)

Iowa rally attendees dutifully held up signs made by the Trump campaign team proclaiming: “Lower prices.”  Gasoline prices have fallen sharply since a year ago but after you fill up your tank, life often feels Bidenesque.

In an August 2024 campaign speech, Trump promised, “Prices will come down… fast, not only with insurance, with everything.”  Auto insurance prices have jumped 12% since 2024 and homeowners insurance rates have jumped 9%.  Health insurance premiums are forecast to jump 18% this year, thanks in part to changes to the Affordable Care Act subsidies.

Trump asserted in Iowa that grocery prices have “come down very fast.” But that is true only if people only eat eggs.  Egg prices have fallen but that was largely due to the end of the avian flu outbreak.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed victory over inflation based on a DoorDash “Breakfast Basics Index” report that showed a 14% decline in the “cost of three eggs, a glass of milk, a bagel and an avocado.” Damn few Trump supporters get DoorDash avocado deliveries for breakfast. DoorDash’s deal is no solace for people pummeled by the 30%+ increase in coffee prices and the 18% increase in orange prices since Trump took office. Overall, food prices rose almost 3% last year – faster than the overall inflation rate and faster than they rose in Biden’s final year.

Biden’s reckless policies did send inflation skyrocketing prior to 2024.  Though Trump claims to have vanquished inflation, it is practically unchanged from Biden’s final year. But that may be the calm before the storm.  The most recent Producer Price Index showed prices increasing at a 6% annual rate.

The White House acts as if more bragging by Trump will solve all of America’s problems. But is the Trump administration now targeting its economic message solely to people who failed mathematics?

Trump boasted in Iowa, “I got the biggest price reduction in history on drugs, pharmaceuticals… you could say it’s a 1,000 percent reduction.” Trump has yet to explain how a price can fall more than 100%.  But that conundrum is null and void since the price of drugs continues to rise.  Regardless, Trump declared: “We now are paying the lowest price anywhere in the world for drugs.”  It is unclear whether Trump believes this sheer buncombe.

Millions of Americans now feel like their path to the middle class is blocked by sky-high housing prices – a problem Trump to fix during his 2024 campaign.   But Trump declared last week, “I want to drive housing prices up for the people who own their homes.”  And then Trump added insult to injury: “We’re not going to destroy the value of their homes so that somebody who didn’t work very hard can buy a home.”

Federal policies and artificially cheap credit have sent housing prices far above levels that would otherwise prevail. And then Trump comes along and sneers at the victims of federal policies he helped unleash.  Many young folks are working two or three jobs to try to save money for a downpayment for their first house.

Trump did pretend to toss a bone to struggling young folks. Trump is championing 50-year mortgages which mean that most borrowers could never own their residence – or not take title until after they retired. Trump touted his 50-year mortgage plan: “It’s not even a big deal!… From 30 [year mortgages], some people had a 40, and now they have a 50…. It’s not like a big factor!”

Will Trump adapt the World Economic Forum motto: “You will own nothing and be happy”?  Or maybe Trump would recommend that average Americans solve their housing crunch by conniving to use eminent domain to seize prized urban lots at firesale prices – as Trump did in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Amazingly, even after Trump effectively looted hapless landowners, his casinos in Atlantic City still went bankrupt three times.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed last weekend, Trump declared that his high tariffs “have created an American economic miracle, and we are quickly building the greatest economy in the history of the world.”  Trump’s tariffs are working out great for his big campaign donors but most Americans are being left behind.   Almost 70% of Americans believe that Trump’s tariffs have already boosted the prices they are paying..  Trump’s tariff policies also helped spur a 15 year high in corporate bankruptcies nationwide.

Trump has already lost the support of hordes of folks who voted for him in November 2024.  Consumer confidence last month plunged to the lowest level since 2014, according to a Conference Board survey. More than half of voters say Trump has “made life less affordable” for them and their families, and only 34% approved of his handling of “the cost of living.”

Trump’s economic victory proclamations are starting to resemble a bad magician whose tricks are so lame that his audience starts to heckle him.  But in his Wall Street Journal op-ed, Trump taunted his critics by telling them to wear “one of my favorite red hats—the one that reads, ‘TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!’”

 But do those wildly-overpriced baseball caps  – selling for $55 at the Official Trump Store – come with a money-back guarantee if case Trump drives the economy into a ditch? If you have any doubts whether Trump is America’s chosen savior, you could hedge your risks by purchasing the $17 knock-off version of the “Right About Everything” hat made in China and sold by Amazon.

 An earlier version of this piece appeared at the Libertarian Institute.

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