The Trump administration accounts for one of the highest concentrations of billionaires in the world.
And often, it shows.
As negative economic perceptions have proliferated in recent months, the administration has repeatedly made comments that were ill-advised at best and gobsmackingly out of touch at worst. And there’s no sign of a course correction.
The Republican-turned-independent former congressman Justin Amash of Michigan wagered Wednesday: “It’s like this administration is now just trolling MAGA.”
He was responding to White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett on Wednesday touting Americans’ increasing credit card spending.
“In fact, I had the head of one of the big five banks in my office yesterday going through the credit card data, and just as [Treasury] Secretary [Scott] Bessent said, credit card spending is through the roof,” Hassett told Fox Business Network. “They’re spending more on gasoline, but they’re spending more on everything else, too.”
Hassett, who like Bessent is not among the administration’s billionaires, was arguing that consumer spending is strong, which suggests a healthy economy. But it could certainly be read as a reflection of rising prices and Americans going into debt, too — which Amash and many Trump critics quickly cited.
“The Trump Administration is now CELEBRATING Americans paying more for gas and putting more on their credit cards,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said. “They’re literally bragging about people getting squeezed.”
President Donald Trump offered some similar comments Monday at a White House small business summit.
“And thanks to these pro-growth policies, our economy is roaring and factory construction is way up,” he said. “Consumer confidence is way up.”
Neither measure is “way up” or even “up.” In fact, factory construction is down under Trump after increasing greatly under former President Joe Biden. And the data shows measures of consumer confidence hitting their lowest points in the post-World War II era.
“Roaring” is also a claim that precious few Americans would agree with; just 6% rated the economy as “very strong” in polling released last month.
Trump has consistently betrayed his billionaire lifestyle. Last month, for example, he signaled that he was unfamiliar with the concept of a “corner store.”
“What is a corner store? I’ve never heard that term,” he said in Las Vegas at an economic event, adding: “I’ve never heard it described a corner store. Who the hell wrote that, please?”
A day earlier, Bessent cited strong spending numbers to submit that Americans actually felt good about the economy, deep down — no matter what they said.
“Well, look, in their heart of hearts, they feel good,” he said. “I’m not sure what they’re telling the survey people.”
That certainly risked condescending to Americans who routinely rate the economy as quite poor.
It was hardly the first head-scratching comment from the Treasury secretary. In January, he said the administration didn’t want its proposed ban on institutional investors buying single-family homes to inadvertently hurt “mom and pop” investors.
“Mom and pop” investors who … owned up to a dozen homes, that is.
“Someone, maybe your parents for their retirement,” Bessent told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, “bought five, 10, 12 homes. So, we don’t want to push the mom and pops out. We just want to push everyone else out.”
That same week, Trump traveled to Davos, Switzerland, and proceeded to brag to the world’s elite about how much richer he was making them.
“I don’t even ask anybody how you’re doing now,” Trump told a gathering of CEOs. “It’s like everybody is making so much money.”
The president also riffed on how, during his first term, things were so good that a wealthy friend bought an airplane he didn’t even use. Just to underscore, these are the kinds of elites that Trump’s MAGA movement often derides.
The episode epitomized the kind of tone deafness we’ve often seen from Trump. He remains focused on putting his name on things and building a massive arch and ballroom in Washington, DC — he also proudly displayed a gold statue of himself on social media Thursday — even as Americans overwhelmingly think he’s neglected their major cost-of-living concerns. Polls suggest this tone-deafness is a problem for Trump.
And these are just the most recent episodes in this long-running saga. There were several other incidents before Trump spoke in Davos.
That includes Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins talking about saving money with backyard chickens and running “simulations” to produce $3 meals that included a “piece of broccoli”; Trump talking about how Americans could respond to rising prices due to his tariffs by buying children fewer dolls; and billionaire Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick assuring that his mother wouldn’t complain about missing a Social Security check.
It’s as if there’s nobody internally flagging that these kinds of comments risk sounding out of touch. What seems to matter more to the administration is that they echo Trump’s preferred framing that things are, in fact, great.
Which might be true for wealthy Americans. But that message hasn’t seemed to convince the rest of America — and could potentially backfire. Views of the economy have only worsened in recent months, after all.
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