Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made an appearance on Fox's Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo this weekend, and was asked about Americans' concerns over affordability, and Bessent did his best to deflect and blame all of their problems on the Biden administration rather than accepting responsibility for their part in contributing to inflation and soaring food costs. Instead he pretended the Trump administration feels everyone's pain (they don't) and doesn't want to minimize it.
Nevermind Trump was just raging over the weekend that the issue of affordability is just a "con" by Democrats:
President Donald Trump has blasted Democrats for lying about affordability as he struggles to keep his promise to bring down costs.
A series of recent economic and political indicators has put the Trump administration on the defensive, even as the record-long government shutdown comes to an end.
“Affordability is a lie when used by the Dems. It is a complete CON JOB,” Trump wrote in a post on Friday.
He argued that costs under his administration are tumbling down, but data suggest otherwise.
Bessent also blamed the high price of beef on "migrants" and the Biden administration, ignoring climate change, drought, high feed costs and other factors that have largely contributed to the soaring prices, before promising that their tax cuts passed in the "big beautiful" turd of a bill earlier this year are going to the the miracle cure for the economy.
BARTIROMO: Okay. I want to move on to affordability because this is another issue that the Biden administration brought you. Of course, we remember when inflation was at 40 year highs. President Trump has made this a priority, But suddenly there is more talk about the struggles in the cost of living.
I spoke with the CEO of Omaha Steaks on Friday on Mornings with Maria, and here's what he told me. Watch this.
REMPE: So we are headed for what I'm calling Maria, the $10 a pound reality. By third quarter of '26, families are going to see $10 a pound ground beef in the grocery store. Uh, so we're in for a bit of a haul here. I don't believe we'll see price come down in any meaningful way until sometime in 2027.
BARTIROMO: Mr. Secretary, I know that President Trump has been able to rein in inflation, certainly the cost of some foods and energy, but what is your take on what you just heard? He's expecting $10 meat.
BESSENT: Well, the beef market is a very specialized market. It goes in long cycles... and... that, this is the perfect storm, again, something we inherited.
And there's also, because of the mass immigration, a disease that had been, we've been rid of in North America, made its way up through South America, as these migrants, they have brought some of their cattle with them.
So part of the problem is we've had to shut the border to Mexican beef because of this disease called the screwworm. So we're not gonna let that get into our supply chain. And again, I don't want to focus on one product. It's a very important product, and we are laser-focused on this issue.
And the cost of living, Maria, is two parts. So we inherited this terrible inflation. We are flattening it out. I believe we're going to push it down. Energy prices are down. Interest rates are down. But the real thing that is going to happen that is going to give Americans real purchasing power increases. It's going to be through growth.
We passed the one big, beautiful bill. I am also the IRS commissioner, and I can see that working Americans, thanks to the president, living up to his campaign promises, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, deductibility of auto loans, if you buy an American car, there are going to be substantial refunds in the first quarter of '26.
Working Americans will change their withholding and they will get a bump up in their real incomes. So I would expect in the first two quarters, we are going to see the inflation curve bend down and the real income curve substantially accelerate. And when those two lines cross, Americans are going to feel it.
But, Maria, I will tell you what we're not going to do. What we're not going to do is tell the American people that they don't know how they're feeling, which is what the Biden administration did.
They said it was a vibe session. You don't know how good you have it, and we are working every day to get these prices down.
No, they're just going to continue to gaslight everyone and tell them what they're feeling and living through isn't real. It's just a hoax, they say. Good luck with that.
