In his decade in national politics, Donald Trump has transformed the meaning of the political gaffe. As a campaigner and as president, he has demonstrated an uncanny ability to bulldoze over controversies stemming from embarrassing, tone deaf or outright offensive remarks. But it’s genuinely hard to see how a tin-eared remark he made Tuesday won’t haunt him.
Before leaving for his trip to China, Trump took questions from the press on the White House lawn. About 10 minutes into his appearance, a reporter asked, “When you’re negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are Americans’ financial situations motivating you to make a deal?”
Without hesitation, Trump replied, “Not even a little bit.”
He continued: “The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran — they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”
I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.
Democrats have just received the ideal video clip for midterm messaging.
Trump’s favored escape hatch — passing off an off-color or foolish remark as a joke — is not available here. In clips of his remarks, which immediately spread like wildfire on social media, Trump speaks emphatically, and his tone makes it clear that he’s speaking with clear and serious intention.
Even during an era in which Trump has raised the bar for impropriety and scandal unthinkably high, there’s a reason this blunder has the juice in a way most of Trump’s remarks don’t: He has committed a gigantic Kinsley gaffe. That’s a reference to former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley’s definition of a gaffe as “when a politician tells the truth — some obvious truth he isn’t supposed to say.”
The truth, in this case, is that Trump obviously doesn’t care about ordinary Americans’ financial well-being. It’s sticky not just because he said it, but because he has long been acting like it.
The war with Iran caused an entirely predictable oil shock in the Strait of Hormuz, and in turn, an entirely predictable blow to Americans’ wallets. Every serious energy and security observer of the region knew that this was a likely effect of such a conflict. But Trump went ahead anyway because he was so fixated on claiming another regime change that he didn’t stop for a moment to think about the repercussions.
This accidental truth-telling by Trump underscores how much his second term is politically fraudulent. He largely won the White House again because of lingering resentment over inflation during the Biden administration and rosy memories of Trump’s economic performance, alongside his promises of “no new wars.” His campaign ran ads proclaiming “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you.” Now he’s admitting — both in word and deed — that all that was a lie, and that his top priority is an unpopular project he was never elected to carry out.
My belief — and hope — is that this is the kind of clip that will have potency not only with Democrats, but also independents and soft Trump voters who are already souring on Trump due to the war in Iran and high costs of living. It’s the kind of thing that Trump can be hammered with not just by the Democratic Party, but also the isolationist, Tucker Carlson-aligned wing of the GOP.
While Trump flails in negotiations with an increasingly resolute Iran, he obsesses over a $1 billion White House ballroom project and continues to use his presidency to enrich himself and his family. I don’t think about anybody. The only part Trump is missing is “but myself.” But I’m increasingly confident that most voters can fill in the blanks.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He primarily writes about politics and foreign policy.