‘Perfect statement’: Trump doubles-down on dismissing economic pain

[0:00] President Trump is doubling down on a comment from Tuesday that [0:03] probably gave every Republican strategist out there an ulcer. Here's a refresher. [0:19] The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. [0:24] I don't think about American financial situation. I don't think about anybody. I think about one [0:29] thing. You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That's all. [0:35] Now here's what he said when he was asked about that comment last night on Fox. [0:41] That's right. That's a perfect statement. I make it again. When people hear me [0:44] say it, everybody agrees. Short-term pain. It's going to be short-term pain. [0:50] But the pain is much less than people thought. That so-called perfect statement comes as a new [0:57] CNN poll shows 70% disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy, 74% disapprove of his handling of [1:04] inflation, and a whopping 79% disapprove of his handling of gas prices. Joining the conversation [1:11] is Ron Insana, MSNOW business analyst and writer of The Message of the Markets on Substack, [1:15] and Mondaire Jones is still with us. So, Ron, I'm not going to ask you about what a beautiful [1:23] gift this was to Democrats. I mean, maybe I could. But Trump's statement there was that, you know, [1:29] it's going to be over soon. It's going to be better before you know it. How realistic is that [1:35] prognostic? It's not going to be over soon. Okay. [1:37] It can't be over soon because it's going to take months to get oil, even if the war were [1:42] to stop tomorrow and they were going to start to re-engage wells and do everything else they [1:47] need to do to get oil out of the Strait of Hormuz and around the world. That is a weeks to months [1:51] process. Whether it's going to Japan, whether it's going to the California coast, it doesn't matter. [1:56] It is not going to end soon. And it means that prices will be elevated for a period of time. [2:00] And there is a point at which, if this were to carry on for a significant longer period, [2:04] like through July, then the production of oil starts to wind down in the Middle East. And [2:09] restarting that is a very, very big problem, which means not just higher prices, but extraordinary [2:15] supply disruptions around the world, more so elsewhere, Japan, Europe, but we'd still feel [2:20] the effects as well. So go ahead. No, I was going to ask you one [2:23] there about our colleague, Alex Tabat has been speaking to Americans at the pump and getting their [2:28] thoughts about those comments. Take a listen to what they've been saying. [2:31] He doesn't care about our situation. He doesn't. He's just here for pride and ego. [2:37] These prices are insane. I just wish gas prices would come down. That's killing me. [2:42] Only the rich are surviving right now. And the rest of us are getting more and more in debt. [2:47] Mothers with children are being homeless. People can't get food. He needs to do more, [2:53] not only for the gas, but for his people. [2:56] So he chokes it up to short-term pain. But the reality of it is pain is pain and Americans are [3:05] suffering and he's completely out of touch with ordinary Americans. Is this going to be a campaign [3:11] ad for Democrats to run on? There has never been a president in the history of this country [3:15] who has so such disdain for everyday people. I mean, to say what he said out loud, I mean, [3:22] look, let's face it, we know that he thinks that, right? Like he cares about the stock market [3:27] and in particular, apparently about his own stock portfolio, given the hundreds of 3,700, [3:31] 3,700, excuse me, of trade that he made in individual stocks largely, you know, leading up to [3:37] the Iran war that he started and apparently has lost on behalf of this country. Of course, [3:43] Democrats are going to run on this, but they were already going to do that before those comments. [3:48] I mean, he just made it even easier to make the case to people. But folks are feeling the pain at [3:53] the pump. They're seeing it in the grocery stores and they're struggling, right? I mean, [3:58] you've got a bunch of people who can't go on vacation anymore this upcoming Memorial Day weekend [4:02] because, or next weekend rather, because of how expensive he has made it to live. And people [4:08] remember that. They know how it feels. It's not going to go away, to my friend's point over here. [4:14] And what I also worry about is, is the way that, you know, people are going to be able to retire in [4:20] this country, right? Because we've already seen, you know, the borrowing costs go up, [4:25] right? So that means the America is going to be further in debt. And that's not just with respect [4:29] to the United States government. That's also corporations. It's going to be harder for them. [4:33] And so when people look at their 401ks, you know, I think that this is going to impact stocks as we [4:38] get closer to November. And I think people who are paying attention to that kind of thing and who [4:42] have those resources are also going to be upset, right? It's not just going to be [4:46] lower income people. It's going to be people across the board in this country. [4:49] Ron, there's a new report from the Fed that shows economic well-being [4:52] deteriorated among black adults, young people, and those with low incomes. Of course, [4:57] Mondaire basically just spelled it out there. According to that report, [5:00] 60% of black Americans reported they were doing okay or comfortable in 2025, down from 65% in 24. [5:07] Declines were also seen among adults ages 18 to 29 with 63% reporting financial stability and those [5:15] at the low end of the spectrum. I often hear economists say that particularly when it comes [5:20] to black Americans that their unemployment numbers, their economic well-being is usually like it is a [5:27] warning sign. It is like the canary in the coal mine. It's certainly one of them. And you know, [5:32] I know Catherine's former colleague, Heather Long, has written a lot about the so-called K-shaped [5:36] economy and it's getting more K-shaped. Those who are doing well are holding on very well. And those [5:41] who are in middle and lower income brackets are getting absolutely hammered. If you're middle, [5:45] you're just hanging on by the skin of your teeth. And if you're in the lower income bracket and you've [5:49] got grocery prices, which last month had one of their biggest surges in quite a long time, [5:53] gas prices obviously are moving up, fuel prices, so jet fuel is doubling the price of, [5:58] in some cases, airline tickets. So it is a really regressive tax. Everything that we're seeing [6:03] happen right now with respect to inflation is wildly regressive. What we're seeing on the employment [6:07] side for specific groups is even worse. Generally speaking, black unemployment runs about a percentage [6:13] point higher than white unemployment, even through good cycles. And so this is just exacerbating that [6:18] trend and making it even worse. Mondaire, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of trades [6:25] were revealed in the most recent ethics filing on Donald Trump's behalf. Why has Congress not [6:33] passed a law forcing presidents to either not trade while they're in office or have a true blind trust [6:39] instead of just being managed by family members? Like what is happening in Donald Trump's case? [6:44] Well, Mike Johnson, I was going to say real quick, Mike Johnson addressed that [6:47] earlier this week and he had a soundbite where he said, look, the average member of Congress is making [6:51] $174,000 a year, which is down in terms of real earnings. And then he said they should be allowed [6:58] to make a little bit of money because they're sacrificing so much of their life to serve the [7:02] public. They also get a $2,700 a month food stipend and travel stipend. [7:05] There you go. That only started recently, but I say it happened after I left. [7:10] But there's a four year window where something could have been done with respect to Trump. [7:15] First of all, the president gets paid a lot more than members of Congress. [7:17] Yeah. And more importantly, you know, it's because we've just never had a president who [7:21] so brazenly engages in the kind of corruption that we see coming out of that white coming out [7:26] of this White House. That is not an excuse. Congress should have done this a long time ago. I mean, [7:31] no president should be able to trade in individual stocks, given the ability of the president to [7:36] influence the market through apparently a tweet or a true social message. Even across my career, [7:41] every government elected official and appointed official was forced to divest [7:45] their holdings in individual company stocks and go into a blind trust. This has been true. I [7:49] remember James Baker, when he became secretary of the treasury in the Reagan administration, [7:53] owned Texas American bank shares. And he had to sell it and had to get rid of it, [7:57] put the money in the trust. Everything had to go into T-bills. You can't- [8:00] Was that by law or just by kind of a norm? [8:03] I suspect it was more of a norm, but it was a norm across the board that was widely [8:06] accepted by everybody who was in position. [8:07] And Jimmy Carter had to sell his peanut farm. [8:08] Oh yeah. Yes, he did. [8:09] You can't have a norm these days. [8:11] No. [8:12] Not with this government. [8:13] Unless you're watching, cheers. [8:14] All gone. [8:16] Mondaire Jones and Ron Insana, great to have both of you guys with us.