In a recent fiery exchange, CNN anchor Brianna Keilar confronted former Trump advisor Stephen Moore over the escalating economic anxieties facing everyday Americans, particularly amidst surging oil and gas prices. The backdrop? President Donald Trump’s pledge to intensify his war against Iran, a strategy offered without a clear exit or timetable during his Wednesday night state address.
Keilar zeroed in on the immediate financial impact: gas prices are soaring, hitting states that favored Trump in 2024 disproportionately. Utah has seen a staggering $1.46 increase, Arizona is up $1.37, with Florida, Idaho, and Kentucky also experiencing significant hikes. “How long can people really bear that?” Keilar pressed Moore.
Moore, in a move that echoed a familiar narrative, assured Keilar that Americans would “get through this,” drawing parallels to higher inflation-adjusted prices in the 1970s. However, Keilar quickly pivoted to stark reality: Trump’s approval on the economy had plummeted to a “new career low 31 percent,” an eight-point drop since January. Even more telling, support among Republicans had fallen by 14 percent in the same period.
“That is really a dip. Is he risking [anything] with these Biden style assurances that everything is fine?” Keilar challenged. “I’ll be honest, I’m even hearing a little bit of that from you as well, that everything is fine, that it’s going in the right direction when that is not what people are acutely feeling.”
The anchor then corrected Moore on his initial framing of the issue. “Can we just be clear? This isn’t inflation,” Keilar asserted. “This is the effect of a foreign policy decision [Trump’s war] on something that people can’t avoid.”
Moore, seemingly unable to provide a direct economic solution, shifted the onus to the public. “I can’t answer this and you can’t answer it,” he conceded. “It’s the question the American people really have to ask themselves. … Are you willing to absorb that short term pain … to create potentially a more prosperous and freer world?”
Keilar countered with a recent clip of Trump himself, discussing the division of responsibilities: “Don’t send any money for daycare because the United States can’t take care of daycare. That has to be up to a state. We can’t take care of daycare. We’re a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal.” Trump concluded, emphasizing, “We have to take care of one thing: Military protection. We have to guard the country.”
Moore expressed agreement with Trump, stating, “Clearly the number one responsibility of the United States government is our national security.”
Just as the interview seemed to conclude, Keilar wasn’t ready to let go. “I’m going to push it back a little bit here,” she declared. “He’s supposed to be speaking to what people are feeling, which is that their health care costs are bananas. Their gas prices are bananas. Daycare is insane.” Her final, pointed question to Moore: “Is he out of touch?”
The implication was clear: if Trump is out of touch, so too might be his former advisor, who responded by questioning whether it was even the federal government’s responsibility to address these widespread problems. The exchange highlighted a significant chasm between the assurances from some officials and the acute financial pain felt by millions of Americans.
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