Trump gaslights MAGA
Surely they remember he told them prices would go up, not down, right?
By Sam Bellamy
Our stable genius, who promised his supporters that he’d lower consumer costs on the first day of his presidency, now says MAGA voters were well aware prices would go up because of his tariff war.
“I said all of these things during my campaign. I said, 'You're gonna have a transition period,’” he declared in an interview aired last week on ABC News.
Trump’s hey-my-people-knew-all-this claim coincided with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasting Amazon over news reports that it planned to begin listing how much tariffs had increased the prices of particular items on its site. She called it “a hostile and political act.”
Amazon quickly disputed the news reports, saying such a plan had not been approved. Later in the day, Trump said that he’d called Jeff Bezos, who was “very nice” and “solved the problem very quickly.” Of course, he did. He’s such a good lapdog.
It defies belief, yet again, that MAGA supporters are so dim and/or so blinded by their cultish allegiance to their orange-plastered messiah that they’re not upset about the Trumpcession now getting under way.
Consumer costs are rising, and although 401(k)s and IRA retirement savings bounced back at the end of last week, they’re as still as volatile as a Trump food-on-the-wall temper tantrum.
Early last week, Trump greeted news that the stock market was continuing to plummet with a familiar refrain: Not my fault.
“This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s. I didn’t take over until January 20th. Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers,” he posted on Truth Social. “Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang.’ This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!”
Overhang.
Biden left us with a strong economy, repaired after Trump’s disastrous handling of COVID. The only overhang is Trump’s belly over his belt. Sooner or later, even MAGA will notice that.
Before last week’s market bounceback, more than $6.5 trillion had been wiped from the value of public companies. The 9% drop in the S&P 500 was on track for the worst start to a presidential term since Gerald Ford waved goodbye to Richard Nixon’s helicopter.
The bad economic news likely isn’t over.
The Street reports that companies announced 497,000 layoffs in the first quarter, the largest total for the first quarter since the recession of 2009. Layoffs totaled 105,441 in April, up 63% from last year.
Also from The Street: “The University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Survey fell 8% to 52.2 in April from March, the fourth-lowest level for April since 1952. Respondents’ inflation expectations for the year ahead surged to 6.5% from 5% last month, the biggest forecast since 1981.”
Trump is now saying “anything can happen,” including a recession but that all will be OK. And, besides, why aren’t we talking about how wonderful he is?
“Some people on Wall Street say that we’re going to have the greatest economy in history. Why don’t you talk about them? Because some people on Wall Street say this is the greatest thing to ever happen,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
This weekend, Saturday Night Live showed Trump signing an executive order officially changing the word “recession” to “recess.”
“Fun, right?” he asks.
It certainly sounds like something he’d do. And MAGA, no doubt, would eat it up. For now, at least.