Prices rose in May for the third month in a row, leaving American families and businesses to suffer the sting of the war with Iran.
And for the third time, the White House largely shrugged off the news, insisting that the problem was temporary — and that President Trump’s agenda was working.
“No, I love it, the numbers were great,” the president told reporters on Wednesday. “I love inflation.”
It was a familiar pattern that seemed to underscore the growing gulf between Mr. Trump and the majority of Americans who say they are frustrated with the direction of the economy. The president’s comments perfectly framed both the political strategy and the stakes for Republicans heading into an election season that may well hinge on the state of voters’ finances.
The latest measure of the consumer price index, released on Wednesday, showed that goods became more expensive overall last month, rising 4.2 percent compared with a year earlier. That marked the fastest pace since April 2023 and, as a result, provided renewed evidence that prices are rising faster than Americans’ wages.
The acceleration stemmed largely from the war with Iran, which has snarled the world’s energy supply, sending oil and gas costs skyrocketing as a result. This, in turn, has made travel and freight more expensive, which has pushed up the price of many products, including some groceries.
As before, however, the scourge of creeping inflation hardly bothered Mr Trump.
Speaking at a bill signed into law Wednesday, the president claimed the US economy had been in strong shape before the war with Iran. He suggested that he had initially expected the fallout from the conflict to be much worse. He later boasted of gains in the financial markets, even though major indexes were all down when he spoke.
Finally, asked when he expected prices to drop, Mr. Trump that inflation would slow down quickly once the Iran conflict ends.
“It’s going to drop like a rock,” he said.
The comments caught Mr. Trump’s policy strategy throughout the war with Iran, an intervention the president once proclaimed would be over in weeks — but is now three months over.
He framed the intervention as a national security requirement and has described the US economy as resilient enough to absorb any blow. He has also promised that any damage would be reversed quickly, with gas prices falling rapidly as soon as the war ends.
Economists are less certain, especially at a time when the US and Iran have resumed firing. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump to retaliate in response to the downing of a US helicopter days earlier, a move that could risk another escalation that disrupts the fragile global energy market.
The White House largely sidestepped those concerns on the heels of the latest inflation report. Instead, it chose to focus only on a subset of items, including cars, where prices fell last month.
“The expected May CPI report reinforces that despite temporary disruptions from Iran’s efforts to undermine the free flow of energy, President Trump’s broader economic agenda continues to deliver meaningful results for the American people,” Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said in a statement.
Mr. Trump has spent months brushing aside voters’ concerns about the rising cost of living. At one point Friday, he repeated his claim that the affordability debate is a “con job.” He also insisted that he had brought inflation “down” from its pandemic peaks.
In an interview that aired Sunday on the NBC program “Meet the Press,” Mr. Trump that the country is “doing well” as he urged the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.
In general, economists expect the Fed to keep interest rates steady to keep inflation in check. Further bolstering that sentiment, the labor market has remained robust after employers added about 172,000 jobs last month, more than analysts expected.
But Mr Trump has continued to insist that interest rates should be significantly lower, dispelling concerns that too low rates could actually make the problem worse.
“Now, if inflation comes, and you know, people live with inflation, but if inflation comes, what happens is you stop it,” the president said. “But success can kill inflation just like higher interest rates.”
