President Donald Trump said this weekend that the U.S. now has "the best" poverty, and critics online quickly made fun of the line.
"We have the best, uhh, I guess you could say poverty," Trump told reporters in a clip that independent journalist Aaron Rupar shared on X on Sunday. "They talk poverty. We have the best poverty numbers ever in the history of our country."
The replies came in quickly.
Mowafaq Tayeb, who lists a Ph.D. in his profile, replied in Arabic. He wrote that U.S. poverty numbers are "terrifying," especially "after millions lost their health insurance and government food aid."
Reed Galen, a former Republican strategist who co-founded the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, was harsher. "Out of the mouths of morons," Galen wrote on X in response to the clip.
The Tennessee Holler, a progressive news outlet, argued that the president was taking credit for data that doesn't belong to him. "Reality: we don't have numbers for 2026– we have 2025 numbers... he's taking credit for Biden's policies (again)," the outlet wrote on X, linking to the Census Bureau's release.
Arturo Dominguez, a journalist, had a shorter response. "Poor white people would like a word," he wrote on X.
The Rev. Dr. Marvin Tiller Jr., a pastor, wasn't impressed either. "Not the flex you think it is, doofus," Tiller wrote on X.
Trump made the remark as his approval rating sits at a career low, with Americans pointing to high prices. Gas and diesel prices have hit record highs during the war in Iran.