President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the plight of Americans finding it harder and harder to make ends meet and rising gas and consumer prices simply aren’t on his mind as the months-long Iran war and impasse over the Strait of Hormuz continue to fuel surging inflation in the United States.
Trump made the stunning brush-off statement as he departed the White House for Beijing, where he will be feted by Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a state visit, including a lavish Thursday night banquet at the Great Hall of the People.
Asked about the continuing pocketbook pressures faced by everyday consumers as a result of the war he started more than two months ago, Trump told reporters: “I don’t think about American financial situation — I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
The president’s blunt comments came just hours after the Labor Department released inflation data showing the Consumer Price Index spiking 3.8 percent from the same point last year, including a .06 percent jump last month in the CPI. Gasoline prices, meanwhile, surged by a whopping 5.4 percent last month alone as the ongoing standoff between the U.S. and Iran has blocked the waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply transits each year.
His remarks also came just hours after the release of a new survey showing Americans overwhelmingly blame the president for the record-high gas prices and rising mortgage rates and food costs that have followed.
According to a CNN/SSRS poll, some 77 percent of respondents said Trump’s policies have driven the cost of living up, with most people blaming his decision to go to war with Iran and the implementation of tariffs as the driving factors.
Trump became irate when pressed by reporters on whether his policies have done anything to fulfill his campaign promise to lower prices that consumers had blamed on the Biden administration when they voted to return him to the presidency for a second, non-consecutive term in 2024.
He claimed his administration’s efforts are “working incredibly” because inflation had cooled to roughly 1.7 percent before he elected to start a war against Iran and ignore longstanding concerns that Tehran would react by closing down the Strait of Hormuz and thereby crippling the global economy.
At the same time, he suggested that anyone who is concerned about Americans’ economic conditions wants Iran to acquire nuclear weapons while also claiming that the economy is in good shape because stocks are high.
“Anybody that wants them to have a nuclear weapon is a stupid person. So we said we’re going to take the greatest stock market in history and we’re going to go down a little bit. And actually that turned out to be incorrect, because our stock market is now at the highest point in history, which frankly, surprised a lot of people,” he said.
Continuing, Trump said the end of the war would “not be long” and claimed that oil prices would go bottom out once the impasse over the Strat of Hormuz is resolved as a result.
“We’re going to do whatever is necessary. And as soon as this war is over, which will not be long, you’re going to see oil prices drop, and you’re going to see a stock market, which is already at the highest point in history, go through the roof. You’re going to see the golden age of America, frankly, and you’re seeing it now,” he said.
Trump ran on a campaign promising economic prosperity for the average American, claiming he would end inflation, lower energy prices and cut the cost of everyday items, such as groceries.
While the president was able to keep some of those promises in his first year in office, his decision to go to war with Iran in February has had tangible economic consequences for the average American.
As of May 12, AAA determined the nationwide average cost of a gallon of regular fuel was $4.50 – up from $3.13 one year ago. The Consumer Price Index, which acts as a key measure of inflation, found that consumer prices continued to increase in April – up 3.8 percent from last year.
General morale around the president’s handling of the economy is at an all-time low, according to the CNN/SSRS poll, with roughly 70 percent of respondents saying they disapprove of the economy under the president.
Yet Trump appeared convinced that everyday voters are willing to forgive economic hardship temporarily if he can manage to settle the war with Iran and curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
“If Iran has a nuclear weapon, the whole world would be in trouble because they happen to be crazy,” he said. “Now, if the stock market goes up or down a little bit, the American people understand.”
Despite the president’s boasts, it does not appear that he will be able to claim to have ended the war he started anytime soon.
Diplomatic efforts to resolve the stalemate are at an impasse, and a top Iranian official said on Tuesday that Tehran could start enriching uranium to 90 percent purity — a weapons-grade level — if Trump resumes bombing.
Aides to the president said he is now more seriously considering reopening major combat operations, even as a shaky ceasefire has persisted since it was declared last month.
Hopes of a peace deal to end the war were dampened on Monday as Trump said the month-long ceasefire with Iran was on “life support”.
He told reporters in the Oval Office that while the ceasefire was still in place for now, it was “unbelievably weak”.
“I would call it the weakest right now, after reading that piece of garbage they sent us. I didn’t even finish reading it,” he said.
With additional reporting by Ariana Baio in New York and James Reynolds in London
