Donald Trump set out to boast about his economy before accidentally revealing one of its biggest problems.
During remarks at Tuesday’s Congressional Picnic event at the White House, the president delivered a lengthy victory lap on the state of the U.S. economy, touting record stock market highs, falling inflation, and what he claimed were historic jobs numbers.
“America’s thriving, America’s winning,” Trump said. “Today we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world.”
Trump cast his administration as the architect of an economic rebound, crediting it with bringing down prices and restoring growth.
“We inherited high prices and we got the prices down, and we got them down to numbers that in some cases people have not seen before,” the president said.
But in the middle of his economic celebration, Trump appeared to acknowledge a problem hanging over his message.
“We have an economy, people aren’t seeing it yet,” he said.
The remark stood out as a striking admission from a president who had spent the previous several minutes insisting America was “winning” and that the economy had never been stronger.
“Two and a half months ago, we hit the best numbers that we’ve ever hit as a country,” he said. “Jobs, the best. Everything was the best. Stock market, the highest.”
Trump then shifted from bragging about the economy to explaining why the “best numbers ever” suddenly needed an asterisk.
“I called my people in. I called them in and I said, ‘Congratulations, everybody, but we’re going to have to make a little journey down to a place called Iran,’” he said.
Trump framed the intervention as a necessary step to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“We have to stop them,” he said. “They have nuclear on their mind, and we’re not going to let them have a nuclear weapon.”
The president then predicted the war would be short-lived, repeating a promise he has made since the earliest days of the war.
In March, Trump claimed U.S. forces could be out of Iran in “two to three weeks.” The war has now stretched into its third month, with ceasefire efforts repeatedly stalling even as Trump has continued to insist an end is just around the corner.
“I think we’re going to be finished with that very quickly, and they won’t have a nuclear weapon, and hopefully we’re going to get it done in a very nice manner,” Trump said on Tuesday.
But the economic turbulence Trump blamed on the war has already begun showing up in the numbers.
Thirty-year Treasury yields have climbed to their highest point since 2007 as investors grow increasingly anxious that higher oil prices and continued turmoil in the Middle East could fuel another wave of inflation.
While the stock market has remained near record highs and unemployment has stayed relatively low, inflation last month hit 3.8 percent, its highest level for three years, driven by sharply higher fuel prices.
Consumer confidence has also weakened as Americans continue grappling with cost-of-living pressures and uncertainty over the broader economic impact of the Iran war.
For Trump, whose political appeal has long been tied to promises of economic strength, the stakes now extend beyond market highs.
With midterm elections approaching, the administration will have to convince voters that the economy doesn’t just look strong on paper.
