Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Victor Davis Hanson Schools Democrat Who Says ‘Economy Sucks’ Because Of Trump

Screenshot/YouTube/Piers Morgan Uncensored

Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson explained to Democratic Texas state Rep. Jolanda Jones on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” Monday that former President Joe Biden’s administration deserved blame for current economic woes.

While food and beverage prices have increased during President Donald Trump’s second term so far, they soared under Biden’s tenure, according to YCharts, which cited the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI). After Jones said on the show that Trump was to blame for food insecurity in the U.S., Hanson noted that the large increase in prices took place under Biden.

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“The people on the ground who can’t find work, who if they are working, they’re not being paid a living wage. People literally cannot afford groceries. I’m literally out at food insecurity, food giveaways to people who literally every other week, every two weeks, are coming for fruits and vegetables and protein because they can’t afford it,” Jones said. “People are starving to death in this country because the economy sucks. So when people are telling us that the economy is great, it’s like they’re peeing on us and telling us it’s raining. It’s just not right. It’s not right.”

Former stockbroker Jordan Belfort jumped in to clarify whether Jones was “blaming” Trump for food insecurity.

“Oh, absolutely. It’s the trickle down. Donald Trump is literally judging how well the economy is by how his tech friends are, how his billionaire friends are,” Jones asserted. “Yeah, Donald Trump is destroying this country and he’s destroying it for average hardworking Americans.”

Hanson then walked Jones through how inflation surged under Biden after being low during Trump’s first term.

“When Donald Trump left office, the inflation rate was 1.8% in 2021. And people were warning — Democrats, [former Treasury Secretary] Larry Summers in particular — do not do this Build Back Better … You’re going to print $7 trillion at a time we have supply chain disruptions, and the people have been pent up for two years, and they have repressed demand, and they’re going to go out and buy things they can’t get because they’re not available,” he said. “And we’re going to have a spectacular inflation, and lo and behold, 12 months later, it was 9.1%.”

Inflation soared to record highs under Biden’s administration, with 9.1% being the peak in July 2022.

“And that’s what happened. And you can’t expect in ten months somebody’s going to address something that went on for four years,” Hanson added. “The reason that there are eggs and meat and insurance — you cannot afford it — was because cumulatively, over four years, those prices in those particular areas went up 25%.”

Jones retorted that prices have continued to rise under Trump, but Hanson replied that “the inflation rate was 2.4%.”

The CPI, a broad measure of the prices of everyday goods, rose 2.4% on an annual basis in March and May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The CPI also rose 2.8% in February and 2.7% in June, according to the BLS. While the CPI jumped 2.9% in July, it declined to a 2.6% increase in August.