As Donald Trump gradually comes to terms with Americans’ concerns about affordability, the president routinely claims that he’s lowered energy costs. That’s demonstrably untrue: Over the course of the year, energy costs have gone up, not down.
But the Republican hasn’t talked about energy prices merely in a general sense, he’s also focused specifically on the costs American consumers face at gas stations.
“Gasoline prices have plummeted to the lowest in two decades,” Trump said at a speech on the economy Wednesday in Miami, adding that the public will “soon” see gas that costs $2 per gallon.
The latter claim (which the president makes all the time) is actually an improvement over an earlier iteration of a similar pitch: For months, Trump claimed that gas costs had already fallen below $2 per gallon in states that he never identified.
When that lie proved unsustainable, even for him, it evolved into assurances about future progress.
But the related claim about gas prices plummeting to their lowest level in 20 years is still wrong. Indeed, national averages are higher now than they were at this point a year ago.
To be sure, “Trump says untrue thing” isn’t exactly an unusual revelation, but what strikes me as notable about this specific fiction is how neatly it dovetails with Trump’s lies about grocery prices.
American consumers go to gas stations all the time, and they know that prices haven’t “plummeted.” Trump can’t simply wave his hand and Jedi mind-trick the public into believing otherwise. People know better, not because the White House’s critics have made a persuasive pitch, or because news organizations have successfully set the record straight, but rather, because of their own life experiences at the pump.
His claims, in other words, aren’t just lies; they’re self-defeating lies.
If the Republican wants to argue that rising prices aren’t his fault, that’s fine. If he wants to claim that conditions will soon improve, he’s certainly welcome to try.
But to tell consumers not to believe their own lying eyes about their own wallets is a recipe for failure.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
