Confronted with polls showing broad opposition to his ballroom vanity project and concerns about his weird priorities, Donald Trump apparently thought it would be a good idea to summon White House reporters to look at the construction underway where the East Wing once stood.
Apparently indifferent to the political toxicity surrounding it, the president went on at great length about his enthusiasm for the project and again endorsed a Republican effort to secure $1 billion in public funds for “security” measures related to the controversial endeavor.
But as the Q&A turned to Americans’ wartime economic hardships, Trump used a word that stood out.
“This is peanuts,” the president said, in apparent reference to gas prices. “And I appreciate everybody putting up with it for a little while. It won’t be much longer. … What I think about is you can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
Of course, given that he was speaking in front of his ballroom construction, alongside pictures of the ballroom, after speaking excitedly about the ballroom, Iran’s nonexistent nuclear weapons are clearly not the only thing he’s “thinking about.”
But given the broader context, it was his “peanuts” line that seemed especially tone-deaf. It was, after all, just last week when Trump also said, when asked about Americans’ wartime financial difficulties, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.”
Offered an opportunity to walk back the rhetoric, the president said his instantly notorious phrases were “perfect.”
The comments came the same week that he claimed he had successfully lowered prices “incredibly” (that hasn’t happened), which followed similar claims about a “very substantial” drop in gas prices (that also hasn’t happened).
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If Trump is trying to appear out of touch, he’s doing a terrific job.
The New York Times spoke a few days ago to a Republican strategist based in Arizona who helped contextualize matters nicely: “He flaunted his wealth, and people didn’t mind. But now it’s sort of like: ‘Wow, you’re really not feeling our pain, you are adding to our pain, and on top of that, you don’t care about our pain.’ That could lead to political problems for him.”
And this was before Trump’s “peanuts” line.
The latest national New York Times/Siena poll found that Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of every issue, but he fared worst on his handling of the cost of living, with just 28% of the public backing Trump’s efforts, while 69% disapprove.
There’s no reason to assume these public sentiments can’t get even worse.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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