Donald Trump’s relentless doublespeak has broken Seth Meyers’ brain.
The president has developed a taste for saying he doesn’t know what the word “affordability” means and has labeled it a Democrat hoax, despite using it as a key buzzword during his victorious 2024 election campaign.
On Thursday’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, during his ‘Closer Look’ segment, the host created a brand-new mini segment called ‘I Feel F---ing Crazy.’
“You might recall that during the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump made use of one very specific word to promise that he would bring prices down,” Meyers said, before playing a trio of clips from Trump election rallies in 2024.
“Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again,” he said in the first, before jumping to the second: “Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again.”
Then the third: “Starting the day I take the oath of office, I will rapidly drive prices down, and we will make America affordable again.”
After making a couple of jokes at the president’s expense, Meyers picked up his thread.
“We heard him. He said he would make America affordable,” he said. “He would do it on day one. At a rally this week, he reflected on that promise. Let’s hear how things are going.”
He then played a new clip of Trump, this time at a rally on Monday.
“You know, they have this term,” Trump said. “So here I am. I’m one day in office and the fake news goes, ‘Affordability. Affordability,’” he continued, overly annunciating the words in a mocking tone. “I said, ‘What’s affordability? What’s that all about?’”
“That brings us to a brand new segment called ‘I Feel F---ing Crazy,’” Meyers joked. He then looked into the camera and said, “Can I tell you guys a secret? I feel f---ing crazy.”
“What do you mean what’s affordability?” he said. “You’re the one who said it. You said we were going to make America affordable again. Affordability is the noun form of the adjective affordable. You f---ing drop out.
“This is like if after chanting ‘build that wall’ for four years, he admitted he didn’t know what a wall was.”
Through the campaign and subsequent start to his second term in office, Trump’s promises about prices and affordability were easy to come by.
He frequently bragged about the work his administration had done in lowering the price of groceries, often despite evidence to the contrary.
He also said during the campaign that he would get and keep gas prices below $2 a gallon.
That now seems fanciful following his war with Iran, which has seen the Strait of Hormuz closed, sparking a global energy crisis.
Gas prices regularly rocket past $4, and at points threaten to surpass $5, following Iran’s constriction of the narrow waterway that normally sees around one-fifth of the world’s supply pass through it.
It has had knock-on effects too. Fertilizer trade has also been affected, which will have economic consequences for U.S. farmers, and in turn U.S. consumers.
In a July Harris Poll for the Guardian, researchers found that 57 percent of respondents felt that the economy was worsening, including a 16-point negative swing among Republicans between February and May this year.
