Trump gives himself A+ on everything despite dismal polls

The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

With the midterm elections approaching, host Luke Russert examines the stark contrast between Donald Trump's self-congratulatory economic claims

Key takeaways

• Donald Trump gave himself an A+ on everything despite polls showing 73% disapproval of his economic handling and 82% disapproving of cost-of-living management.
• The Iran conflict has driven diesel prices to record highs, with truckers reporting $1,000+ fuel costs per trip and households facing thousands in cumulative energy tariff increases.

Main topics

• Midterm election dynamics and polling
• Economic affordability and inflation

Notable quotes

"I give us an A-plus on the government, on economics, on everything."

Conclusion

The episode underscores a highly volatile midterm environment where economi

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Watch Ali Velshi five nights a week in primetime on MSNOW as he hosts the 11th Hour. The Justice Department is facing its own legal obstacles over this case. Putting today's stories in perspective. This one is perhaps one of the more interesting surprises. And tomorrow's headlines in focus. Economists are warning that American consumers are soon going to feel the hurt. The 11th Hour with Ali Velshi. Weeknights at 11 p.m. Eastern on MSNOW. And find more on the MSNOW app. The last word with Luke Rustert in for Lawrence starts right now. Hey, Luke. Speaker 6 (0:34) Jen, are you ready for your lobster rolls? There's never a bad time of year for a lobster roll. As long as it doesn't Speaker 1 (0:40) have mayonnaise on it, which I know is probably sacrilegious, but I'm for putting mayonnaise out on a pasture and it never coming back. But I love straight butter works just fine. Speaker 6 (0:49) You're going to have a great time. Send photos for us. OK, I Speaker 1 (0:52) certainly love a road show. Bye, Luke. Have a good show. Speaker 6 (0:56) Thank you. All right, with just 32 days until the midterm elections, Democrats are eyeing the possibility of a blue tsunami. And Republicans, they're trying to do whatever they can to avoid a bloodbath at the ballot box in November. But that task is getting increasingly difficult because, well, no matter what voters think, Donald Trump just keeps saying that the economy is great. Here's how Donald Trump graded himself yesterday. while starting a midterm tour of campaign stops in reliably red states, many that he won by double digits in 2024. Even as Republican candidates distanced themselves from his unpopular agenda, Trump said, quote, I give us an A-plus on the government, on economics, on everything. Yes, on everything. Yes. Even the $4.40 average price for a gallon of gas. Donald Trump gave himself an A-plus for that. But polls show that voters do not feel Trump's economy is working for them, and they're blaming Donald Trump. 73 % disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy. 74 % say the economy is poor. 82 % disapprove of his handling regarding the cost of living. 73 % are concerned about affording. groceries, and 65 % say higher prices are because of Trump's policies. And today's weaker-than-expected jobs report is not going to turn those numbers around. The New York Times reports that employers added 29,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.2%. Data released Friday by the Labor Department showed growth in average hourly earnings fell to 3 % on an annual basis in September. well below inflation. And we should note, the slowest since the pandemic. Yes, since the pandemic. The report continues that employment gains for July and August were revised down by a combined 60,000 jobs. But to Donald Trump, affordability is a phony word. As he told Oklahoma voters yesterday, adding, quote, they always come up with these words. affordability. So the fake news starts using it because they're partners with the Democrats. When I say phony, they say, oh, he thinks inflation is. No, I think inflation is very real, but they're the ones that cause the inflation. I'm the one that's bringing it down. That is not true. A new analysis by a nonpartisan think tank looked at the impact of Trump's energy policies, including things like his decision to cancel new clean energy project. The Associated Press reports the energy innovation analysis found that households will pay an on average 6,500 more for energy cumulatively through 2040. In five states, households will pay roughly $9,000 more. Oregon, Mississippi, South Dakota, Virginia, and Wyoming. That is separate from the cost of Donald Trump's tariffs and his war in Iran, which has caused gas and diesel prices to skyrocket. The nonpartisan research group Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that as of today, the average additional cost to American households is $796.56. By the end of fall, this number will be $1,116.82. Thanks to the war in Iran that we have no idea why it started or why we're in it. Voters in Alaska, another deep red state that Donald Trump will be visiting on his midterm tour, told MSNOW's Alex Tabet. how they're feeling about Donald Trump's economy. Speaker 6 (5:06) If you could talk directly to President Trump about these prices right now, Speaker 1 (5:10) what would you tell him? I would tell him what he initially told the voters is BS, that these prices weren't supposed to be so high, and look what's happened. Gas prices is terrible, it's f***ed up, it's hard out here, yes. Simple. One word to describe how you're feeling right now, what would that one word be? Um, hectic. Speaker 1 (5:31) I don't know. Just there's no clear picture of the future right now. And that's what scares a lot of people. Do you think we're in a crisis right now? Oh, yeah. Everything is expensive right now. Right now, people are watching everybody that voted for him start turning their back on him. If they're informed and pay attention, you don't like what's going on. Plain and simple. Dad, you look in your wallet and watch it get empty every time you do this and fill up your car, you know? Gotta do what you gotta do, but I wouldn't vote for him again. No way to hell Speaker 6 (6:04) No way in hell. Truckers are among the hardest hit by record diesel fuel prices. Sean Howarth, who owns an independent trucking business, told the New York Times that since the war in Iran, filling up his tank cost $1,000. Sit with that for a moment. $1,000 just to start going into work. Quote, for now, the only way to make ends meet, Mr. Howarth said, is to get on the road and stay there. He has not been home since mid-August. He sleeps in his truck, needs his birthdays, volleyball games, and date nights, salsa dancing at a local club. He has not planned to return home until the holidays, unless diesel prices fall sharply. He said, I am just trying to hang on. This problem is the focus of a new ad from the political group Home of the Brave. Speaker 1 (7:00) Everything that you see, touch, feel came in on a truck. These prices changed tremendously. In January, it was costing about $700 to fill it up. I filled it up a couple days ago, and it was over $1,300. Anytime somebody go to war, the prices go up. Get out of Iran. We don't want to be there. Going into a war, focusing on... foreign countries that we have nothing to do with that don't help anybody. We Speaker 8 (7:24) don't have time to suffer. We have bills to pay, families to feed, people to take care of. We Speaker 1 (7:29) live paycheck to paycheck. With the way these prices are going, it's going to put us out of business for sure. Speaker 6 (7:35) The tone deafness is almost surreal. That's how Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman summarizes Trump's rosy portrayal of a non-existent American golden age. But Donald Trump keeps telling voters, pretend I'm running, please. Paul Krugman's latest piece ends this way, quote, election models based on political polls are almost surreally favorable to the Democrats. But it's not just the polls, even though the U.S. economy looks OK by some measures. The overall economic environment looks really bad for Trump and his party. Oh, and there's the small matter of that disastrous war. Yet the Trump administration insists that this troubled environment is a golden age. This isn't just bad politics. It's an indication that Trump is living in a bubble of fantasy and sycophancy in which nobody dares suggest, even as a matter of cynical political strategy, acknowledging that things are less. been perfect. Leading off our discussion tonight is Congressman Brendan Boyle. He is the ranking member of the House Budget Committee and a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Congressman Boyle, thank you so much for being on the show. Speaker 3 (8:47) Yeah, good to be back with you. Speaker 6 (8:49) So you saw in our intro there, a lot of voters are fed up. They're fed up with gas prices. They're fed up with the ongoing corruption that we've seen from this administration. There's a lot of wind at the back of Democrats to go after two things, which is affordability and accountability. What do you think Democrats can do right off the bat if they get the gavel to show Americans that they hear their concerns and are ready to put them into Speaker 3 (9:15) action? Well, first and foremost, we must absolutely put front and center the affordability agenda. And the good news is there are a couple of things that we could do on day one and pass out of the House of Representatives. First and foremost, reclaim the inherent authority given to Congress by the Constitution to control our tariffs and taxes. Eliminate every single one of these tariffs that has been in place ever since so-called Liberation Day. a year and a half ago. You can look at the charts. Inflation was coming down every single month of 2024 and the first three months of 2025. Then once Trump announced this so-called absurd liberation day, well, what it did was it liberated inflation. And ever since then, April of 2025, we have seen inflation on the rise to the point where it is now, which was almost pre-pandemic levels. So that would be number one. And then number two, absolutely cut off any resources for this stupid Iran war, which has been the cost of gas prices and diesel prices spiking by more than 50%. If we're successful on both of those measures, we would actually deliver a huge savings to the American people. Speaker 6 (10:31) One thing that's interesting now is we've been we've been able to see who's been affected by a lot of Trump's legislation. I'll put something up on the screen about Families USA, the big budget bill. One year later, this is the big, beautiful bill that went through the Trump agenda. Millions lose coverage. Millions more remain at risk. While more than 90 percent of adults on Medicaid are already working or would qualify for an exemption exemption, the new requirements that a paperwork trap. The Urban Institute projected 4.9 and 10.1 million people could lose Medicaid coverage by 2028 because of these bureaucratic barriers alone. An estimated $149 billion in federal Medicaid spending will be lost over the next decade through state-directed payments cuts alone, forcing at least 29 states to slash what they pay providers. Fewer provider payments means fewer providers willing to see Medicaid patients, which means less access to care whether or not coverage technically exists on paper. Are you concerned that if the Democrats take back the House, some of the terrible things from the big, beautiful bill will start to come into fruition while you guys have the gavel and you're simultaneously going to have to checkmate Trump, but then also tell voters, hey, we didn't do this. This is on that guy. Can that message go forward? Speaker 3 (11:44) Yeah, that's a good point. You know, first and foremost, I like to say that in the big, whatever you call it, Republican bill, I call it the BS law that was passed last summer. The