Dec. 14, 2025, 4:01 a.m. ET
Guys, I’m going to have to ask you to stop making President Donald Trump feel bad about his loser-stinko economy.
The guy is polling slightly better than scabies, he’s swiftly losing control of his presidency (and quite possibly his mind) and he has it in his head that “affordability” – a thing American shoppers are not presently experiencing – is a hoax concocted by Democrats and not … you know … a real word.
On Dec. 11, Trump wrote on social media: “When will I get credit for having created, with No Inflation, perhaps the Greatest Economy in the History of our Country? When will people understand what is happening? When will Polls reflect the Greatness of America at this point in time, and how bad it was just one year ago?”
Donald Trump wants you to know nobody is suffering more than him
Poor Donald. The problem isn’t that grocery prices are high and scattershot tariffs have made Christmas shopping more expensive and Republican cruelty has done away with Affordable Care Act subsidies, leaving millions of Americans to face skyrocketing health insurance premiums. No, the problem is that nobody is giving the president credit for all the good things happening in the make-believe world he inhabits.
You think you’ve got it hard trying to put food on the table? Try being Donald Trump, the billionaire saint of perpetual grievance.
Trump says ‘affordability’ is a hoax. They should call him President Whiner.
Earlier this month, Trump weighed in on the existence of the word “affordability.”
“The word affordability is a con job by the Democrats,” the president said. “The word affordability is a Democrat scam.”
Well, if it’s a scam, the Democrats have sold it well. Trump’s second term hit its lowest economic approval rating in a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Only 31% of Americans approve of the way the president is handling the economy, which makes sense when you recall he promised to lower prices on day one and do away with inflation on day one and usher in some mythical Golden Age. None of those things have happened. People do see an affordability scam, but it has nothing to do with Democrats.
The scam is an administration that keeps shamelessly lying and telling Americans everything is peachy.
White House officials can’t stop lying about the economy
On Dec. 11, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lied to the press corps: “Every data point and every economic metric does in fact show that the economy is improving.”
That’s laughable, as anyone who isn’t rich can confirm.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of meats, poultry, fish and eggs rose 5.2% over the past 12 months. The cost of nonalcoholic beverages rose 5.3%. Electricity prices rose 5.1% over the 12 months that ended in September.
Betsey Stevenson, a professor of economics at the University of Michigan, recently told NPR: ”Trump’s claims about inflation are false, and you can go to the grocery store and see it yourself.”
Don’t worry about the economy. The rich people will be fine.
In November, the business newsletter Morning Brew noted that the market realities in America look like this: “The affluent (is) doing very well along with the booming stock market and the appreciation of their homes in the inventory-crunched real estate market. Nearly everyone else (is) faltering due to a shaky job market, high interest rates, and/or inflation.”
A Dec. 4 report from consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found: “Through November, employers have announced 1,170,821 job cuts, an increase of 54% from the 761,358 announced in the first eleven months of last year. Year-to-date job cuts are at the highest level since 2020.”
2020 was the year COVID-19 hit.
With approval rating in the toilet, Trump’s power is crumbling
Things are not going well for the average American, and President Affordability-Is-A-Hoax is less connected to reality than I imagined if he thinks he can pee on consumers’ legs and tell them it’s raining.
Trump’s overall approval rating, according to the AP-NORC poll, is 36%, with 61% of Americans disapproving of his performance. Even among Republicans, who generally worship the ground Trump walks on, only 69% approve of how he’s handling the economy.
Trump and his dancing minions can say affordability is a hoax, they can claim prices are down and the economy is booming, they can regale the president with unctuous praise of his economic genius and tell the rest of us up is down. But none of that is true. None of that makes the grocery bill lower. None of that makes up for a monthly health insurance premium that’s poised to double.
If you’re not making Trump feel like a failure, try harder
Trump can whine and woe-is-me all he wants. He can wail fictitious tales like, “When will I get credit for having created, with No Inflation, perhaps the Greatest Economy in the History of our Country?”
It won’t make people like him, nor will it disguise the disaster his presidency has already become.
It’s the holiday season, so maybe we should stop making Trump feel so bad about the mess he has made, at least for a few moments. The poor guy already seems to be falling apart before our eyes.
On second thought, forget that. Trump promised Americans a rose garden and delivered a plot of weeds. That was the real scam. Holidays or not, he deserves to find out that karma is no hoax.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
