In a Truth Social post Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump praised record highs in Wall Street markets, touting them as proof that the U.S. economy was supposedly improving under his watch.
“The USA markets just hit another ALL TIME HIGH – ALL OF THEM!!!” Trump wrote. “THANK YOU MISTER TARIFF!!!”
Trump called on the Supreme Court to keep the tariffs in place, saying they will usher in an era of “UNPARALLELED GREATNESS” for the country. The Supreme Court is currently considering the legality of his tariffs based on the administration’s questionable claims that they’re justified by “national emergencies.”
“BOTH OUR NATIONAL AND FINANCIAL SECURITY HAVE NEVER BEEN STRONGER!” he added.
Claims that Trump’s tariffs somehow improve the country’s national security have been widely disputed — indeed, some experts believe that they actually undermine it.
“These tariffs antagonized many of America’s closest security partners,” the Brookings Institute’s Geoffrey Gertz wrote in an evaluation from September. “Moreover, the Trump administration’s frequent recourses to national security on flimsy grounds will make it more difficult for the U.S. to push back when other countries cloak protectionism in tenuous appeals to national security.”
Trump’s economic claims also come with huge caveats, as the success of the stock market does not translate to widespread success for most Americans. Many economists point out that the U.S. is currently in a “K-shaped” economy, one in which the rich are seeing their wealth skyrocket while the working class is struggling to survive.
“This economy right now is being driven by spending from the top 20 percent of Americans,” Navy Federal Credit Union chief economist Heather Long said in an interview with PBS News in October. “So that dividing line is roughly [a yearly income of] $175,000.”
“Families that are above that mark, they’re living la vida loca…. And the rest of America, the bottom 80 percent, they’re cautious right now,” Long added.
Part of the caution is being driven by dealing with higher expenses — likely a direct result of the tariffs Trump touts. According to a report from Democratic lawmakers on the Joint Economic Committee published in November, the average family in the U.S. is paying an extra $700 per month in basic living costs since Trump took office. Additionally, with the recent expiration of tax credits for some participants of marketplaces within the Affordable Care Act, millions of Americans are now dealing with huge increases to their premiums for health insurance.___
The most recent reporting shows inflation went up by 2.7 percent over the past year. That number is slightly lower than the 2.9 percent increase that was seen before Trump returned to the White House, but economists say it may be skewed because the report was produced in the latter half of November, when the 43-day-long government shutdown was still disrupting data access and Black Friday sales were ongoing.
The minimal slowdown in inflation is hardly what Trump promised would happen. During the 2024 presidential race, he frequently campaigned on the idea that inflation would not only be slowed, but his administration would also, in fact, lower prices for American consumers.
“We will end inflation and make America affordable again, and we’re going to get the prices down.… Groceries, cars, everything,” Trump said at one point during the campaign. “We’re going to get the prices down.”
Recent polling shows that most Americans have noticed Trump has failed on his promises.
According to an Economist/YouGov poll published on Tuesday, only 18 percent of Americans say their personal finances are “better off” than they were one year ago. Meanwhile, 35 percent say their finances are “worse off” than they were when Trump took office.
Participants in the poll also gave Trump negative marks on how he’s handling the economy, with the president earning a net negative 21-point approval rating on the issue. Trump also earned a net negative 27-point rating on his handling of inflation specifically.
Voters largely want a more progressive response to improving the economy, the polling found, with 59 percent saying the federal government should work to reduce the wealth gap between wealthy people and those with lower incomes. Only 21 percent felt the federal government shouldn’t do so.
Eighty percent of voters also recognized the wage gap as being either a “very” or “somewhat” big problem, while only 20 percent viewed it as a “somewhat” or “very” small matter.
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