Trump’s gaffe 'revealed a deeper truth' about his mental state

Before leaving for his flight to China, President Donald Trump was asked if he takes Americans' economic well-being into consideration as he's working on the negotiations with Iran. He answered emphatically that he does not.

“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody," Trump said.

Longtime columnist and political analyst Jonathan Chait explained that it's something that Trump likely said accidentally, but was being honest about. The reason for that is that Trump has never taken Americans into consideration when enacting any of his policies.

"But his denial revealed a deeper truth," Chait wrote, "Trump has treated the public’s economic well-being as an afterthought. The thing he admitted so casually is the primary reason his popularity has cratered. Trump was elected to tackle inflation, and instead has made it worse."

Wednesday, it was revealed that April's U.S. wholesale inflation (PPI) rate spiked to 6 percent. Meanwhile, prices rose 1.4 percent in April. March's revised numbers showed a 0.7 percent gain, slightly higher than expected.

Chait recalled that at an August 2024 campaign rally, Trump claimed he was following orders by focusing on inflation as a talking point. He didn't want to.

“They wanted to do a speech on the economy,” Trump told the crowd with a mocking tone. He cast advisors as "schoolmarms," said Chait.

“So, we’re doing this as a intellectual speech. You’re all intellectuals today," Trump said. Then he rambled on about something else.

“Today, we’re going to talk about one subject, and then we’ll start going back to the other because we sort of love that, don’t we? But it’s an important — no, it’s an important — they say it’s the most important subject. I’m not sure it is, but they say it’s the most important. ‘Sir, inflation is the most important.’ But that’s part of economy," Trump said.

Once he won, Trump still questioned whether inflation was really all that important.

“They all said inflation was the No. 1 issue,” Trump told supporters in January 2025. “I said, ‘I disagree. I think people coming into our country from prisons and from mental institutions is a bigger issue for the people that I know.’ And I made it my No. 1. I talked about inflation, too, but, you know, how many times can you say that an apple has doubled in cost?”

Once Trump was a few months into his presidency, he began calling the affordability crisis a "Democrat hoax." That same crisis has only grown worse.

Chait noted that the tariffs have been a huge problem for the economy, but the real culprit of inflation is coming from Trump's war. With the Strait of Hormuz slowing to a trickle, everything from oil, gas and fertilizer has been paused, and it has gone on long enough that the global economy is feeling the impact.

"Trump may not have expected the war to take this long, or for it to throw off such a large inflationary shock. But a drawn-out conflict that led to an oil crisis was always a risk. Trump was willing to take the risk because he simply doesn’t seem to care enough about inflation to prioritize it over any other goal of his," explained Chait.

Trump's problem is that inflation is a big issue for voters and they don't care if Trump has other goals on his agenda. CNN reported Tuesday that Trump's approval rating on inflation is now lower than that of any president in the history of polling. On Wednesday, CNN revealed that Trump has now reached the highest disapproval rating for any president on gas prices.

Chait cited a new paper written by economists Jared Bernstein and Daniel Posthumus. It found "that people have remained sour on the economy because of the post-pandemic price shock, which ended a long era of price stability. Anger over prices is key to understanding public opinion during the past four years."

Chait closed by saying that the surge in inflation and the national fixation on high prices took the previous administration by surprise. Trump knew it going into his presidency, or at least he was repeatedly told it was.

"And one consistent feature of Trump’s mental style is that if he does not wish to believe something, he won’t," said Chait, and Trump simply doesn't want to believe people are angry about inflation and affordability.

• george conway
• noam chomsky
• civil war
• Kayleigh mcenany
• Melania trump
• drudge report
• paul krugman
• Lindsey graham
• Lincoln project
• al franken bill maher
• People of praise
• Ivanka trump
• eric trump