No. of Recommendations: 4
MAGA is trying to deal with its affordability crisis simply by denying reality. Over the past few days multiple prominent Republicans have gone on TV to insist that gas prices are falling. On Thursday Sen. Tim Scott said that “gas prices continue to come down,” while House Majority Leader Steve Scalise declared that gas is much cheaper than it was “two years ago,” when, he claimed, it was $6 a gallon. The average price then was actually $3.66.
And Pete Hegseth, the Defense secretary, told Congress that gas prices in California were $8 a gallon on the eve of the Iran war; the average was actually $4.64.
What’s striking about these efforts to create an alternate reality isn’t merely the fact that politicians are lying. It’s the fact that they’re lying about a subject in which the truth is more or less literally in everyone’s face every day. Lies about, say, immigrant crime are difficult for ordinary Americans to check. But gas prices are displayed on giant signs all around America — and drivers face a reality check on fuel costs every time they fill their tanks.
Every day, another handful of Americans see the light. The rate of progress may be slow, but Trump’s method of denying reality insures that it will be steady.
It’s difficult to say things are getting better when you can no longer afford gas to get to work.
What will be the final, ultra, low bottom approval rate of Trump love/approval? Right now, that anchor is dragging the bottom so deeply that I wouldn’t be surprised if it pulled up the body of Jimmy Hoffa.
