Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent partially blamed Ukraine for the high costs of fuel because they retaliated against Russian aggression and cherry-picked specific statistics on the economy to dupe the Fox News audience into thinking Trump’s economy is humming.
Bessent joined Fox and Friends earlier, and cohost Brian Kilmeade said the number one issue for consumers going into the midterms is the high cost of living. Kilmeade asked what he could do, knowing the Canadian deal just blew up.
Bessent admitted prices are too high, but then, as usual, blamed Joe Biden for their problems and lied about inflation data under the former President.
“The American consumer got blown away under Joe Biden, 21.5% stated inflation, probably much higher for working Americans,” Bessent said.
There is no evidence of this inflation rate. Bessent is conflating price increases on specific products with the inflation number. It is not.
Then he turned towards Ukraine.
BESSENT: And we are going through an energy shock right now due to both the war in Ukraine, because Ukraine has decided that they want to blow up Russian energy assets and refined products.
So that is creating upward price pressure on a global basis. And then the conflict in Iran, and the conflict in Iran will end, and prices will come down.
Hey Scottie, if Russia never invaded Ukraine, global energy issues would be much less. Also this war was a great cause of inflation under Biden’s presidency.
Bessent uses the Russia war against Ukraine as an excuse, but excludes them from issues Biden faced. The refrain from Trump is that there would have never been a war at all if he was in office. This is ridiculous, but the man is ridiculous.
Bessent then misuses actual data to claim Trump has turned it all around.
BESSENT: Overall, prices are coming down. Core inflation is very under control.
But Brian, what is important here is now under President Trump, we are seeing real wage increases.
So the bottom 25% of wage earners wages went up 4.7%. Inflation headline inflation was about 3.5.
So we are helping Americans slowly get back on their feet.
The Iran conflict will end, but the wage the wage gains will stay.
Bessent cherry-picked some data points from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, but it is not a true figure for the working class.
Bottom line. Bessent is a sociopathic liar.