Conservative to Trump: You can't gaslight Americans on this key issue

President Donald Trump and his supporters keep insisting that inflation is not as bad as most Americans believe to be the case — and a conservative is warning him that you cannot gaslight people about their own finances.

“Inflation rose to 4.2 percent in May, the highest increase since a 2023 surge under President Joe Biden in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic,” wrote The Bulwark’s Joe Perticone on Thursday. “President Trump, who pledged to ‘quickly defeat inflation’ upon returning to the White House, and who in September lied that the economy had ‘no inflation,’ responded to the news with yet another callously stupid Trumpism.”

Quoting Trump’s Wednesday Oval Office statement that “I love the inflation,” as well as Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) saying “because of Donald Trump, we have more Americans with more money in their pockets because we returned to them—or kept in place—a five trillion dollar tax cut,” Perticone warned that this mindset is a recipe for political disaster.

“You might be able to try to spin inflation rates, as Scott does here, but ultimately, you can’t argue with them—just ask Kamala Harris or Joe Biden,” Perticone explained, referring to the Democratic president and vice president who lost the 2024 election in large part due to economic issues. “Even if voters don’t follow the latest CPI or PPI reports, they notice the climbing prices when opening their wallets.”

Perticone is not alone among right-leaning individuals to warn Trump that inflation is a serious issue. Trump, who in May also said that he does not even think about ordinary Americans’ financial problems, so alarmed the fossil fuel industry that Big Oil has been trying to warn him about the ongoing crisis.

"Oil and gas executives have warned the White House that gasoline prices could surge in the coming months as fuel inventories fall to critical lows, complicating the Trump administration’s efforts to contain inflation that has already rattled American consumers," The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The report added, "Industry officials say they are doing everything they can to sound an alarm that prices are about to soar as the commercial and government inventories that have mitigated price rises so far are rapidly depleting, according to multiple people familiar with the conversations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from the administration. Some inventories could be wiped out within weeks, the executives have warned, coinciding with the peak summer travel season."

In response to AlterNet’s questions about inflation and the Iran war back in April, White House spokesperson Kush Desai defended Trump.

“President Trump has been clear about short-term disruptions as a result of Operation Epic Fury, and the Administration went into this military engagement with a plan to mitigate these disruptions to America’s long-term economic resurgence," Desai told AlterNet. "As energy markets begin to stabilize, historic tax refund checks hit the mail, and the rest of the Trump administration’s pro-growth agenda continues taking effect, Americans can rest assured that the best is yet to come.”

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