During a Q&A with reporters at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, Donald Trump faced a straightforward question that should have been easy to answer: “When you’re negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are American financial situations motivating you to make a deal?”
One need not have the instincts of a communications expert or a highly trained politician to know it’s a good idea to express some concern for the public’s financial struggles, especially when extensive public opinion research is showing widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo.
Trump’s instincts, however, took him in a very different direction. Without hesitating, the president replied, “Not even a little bit.”
The Republican went on to offer impromptu comments that likely are not be forgotten anytime soon: “The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”
There’s an old joke that says the definition of a “gaffe” is when a politician accidentally tells the truth. This came to mind watching Trump declare, out loud and on camera, that when it comes to Iran, he’s indifferent to the financial hardships imposed on his own country’s populace.
As my MS NOW colleague Zeeshan Aleem added, “The truth, in this case, is that Trump obviously doesn’t care about ordinary Americans’ financial well-being. It’s sticky not just because he said it, but because he has long been acting like it.”
Aleem went on to note that Trump’s quote was so brazen that Democrats “just received the ideal video clip for midterm messaging.” I think that’s entirely correct, and it also got me thinking about how exactly congressional Republicans might deal with the president’s disregard for Americans’ wartime economic struggles.
Fortunately, MeidasTouch’s Pablo Manríquez asked some congressional Republicans about Trump’s comment on Tuesday afternoon, though they didn’t seem especially eager to talk about it.
On Wednesday morning, during a Capitol Hill press conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson was similarly asked whether the president’s message was the right one. The Louisiana Republican, who has an unfortunate track record of struggling to keep up with current events, said he didn’t know the context.
The trouble is, the context doesn’t help. “I don’t think about anybody” is one of those quotes that even the most creative GOP voices can’t spin away.
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