President Donald Trump and his top officials insist the economy is humming, but CNN's Harry Enten found that Americans aren't buying their assurances.
The president claims prices are coming down and there's "almost no inflation," which stands in stark contrast to what solid majorities are telling pollsters about their views on the economy.
"They think prices are rising, rising, rising, and it's across different [categories]," Enten said. "Look at this: I mean, just your costs are up versus a year ago. Groceries, 85 percent, utilities, 78 percent, health care, 67 percent, housing, 66 percent, gasoline, 54 percent. The bottom line is this Americans feel like prices are rising in each and every single part of their lives, rising, ever climbing, and they just don't feel like that they can catch a break."
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued at the weekend that tariffs actually help consumers, saying that prices would be coming down in the weeks and months ahead, but Enten said the public disagrees.
"They think he's full of it, that's exactly what they think," Enten said. "I mean, just take a look here: Tariffs rising raising prices or raising prices ... 71 percent, 84 percent of Democrats, 74 percent of independents and even a majority of Republicans. When you can get a majority of Republicans to agree with majority of Democrats, you know that the pain is being felt by the American public right now. The treasury secretary can try and tell the people something, but they can feel in their pocketbooks. They, simply put, don't buy what he and this administration is selling when it comes to tariffs."
Trump and his top officials blame any economic woes on former President Joe Biden, but Enten said that isn't a widely shared view.
"No, no, no," he said. "You know what, I want to quote Judge Judy, but I'm not going to, I'm merely going to try and say it's like they're trying to sell ice up at the North Pole when it comes to this. More responsible for the current economy, 62 percecnt of Americans say it's Donald Trump, just 32 percent say it's Joe Biden. Look, Donald Trump did, in fact, inherit an economy from Joe Biden, but now we are nearly a year into the Donald Trump administration. If the Trump administration is trying to push the book over there. Simply put, the American folks aren't buying it. They say at this point, it is Donald Trump's economy and what is happening in terms of inflation is his responsibility."
"If you want the power, you get the power," Enten added. "But with great power comes great responsibility."
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