{"id":16450,"date":"2025-12-09T22:02:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T22:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/shapiro-shreds-trumps-economy\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T22:02:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T22:02:02","slug":"shapiro-shreds-trumps-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/shapiro-shreds-trumps-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Shapiro shreds Trump’s economy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Ahead of President Donald Trump\u2019s remarks on the economy in a swing district in Northeastern Pennsylvania on Tuesday night, his self-grading of an \u201cA-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus\u201d on a key midterm issue is roiling the campaign trail.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said in an exclusive statement to Blue Light News that Trump\u2019s remark \u2014 delivered during his sitdown with POLITICO’s Dasha Burns<\/a> for a special episode of \u201cThe Conversation\u201d<\/a> released this morning \u2014 is out of touch with reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President\u2019s statement does not reflect the reality on the ground here in a community where many Pennsylvanians voted for him in the last election,\u201d Shapiro said in the statement. \u201cThe record is clear: his policies have hurt the very communities that propelled him to the White House. Trump\u2019s tariffs and economic policies have raised prices at the grocery store, shuttered markets for our farmers, hurt our manufacturers, and dramatically increased the cost of living for Pennsylvanians.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the interview with Blue Light News, Trump was asked what grade he would give his economy, to which he responded: \u201cA-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus.\u201d That remark comes despite consistent polling, including a recent POLITICO Poll<\/a>, that shows voters are feeling pinched. According to the most recent Consumer Price Index, prices rose 3 percent over the 12 months ending in September. Trump\u2019s top advisers, meanwhile, are pitching his Pennsylvania trip<\/a> as an attempt to reboot an affordability message that\u2019s been hindered by his insistence that the economy is strong.<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s comments to Blue Light News on the economy are already being turned into a cudgel against him heading into the midterms, as Shapiro\u2019s response \u2014 and other Democrats \u2014 shows.<\/p>\n

Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, another potential 2028 candidate, joined Shapiro in dinging Trump for the comments. \u201cMust be graded on a curve that excludes rent, groceries, and healthcare,\u201d Pritzker wrote in a post on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing his alternative reality and talking points to our Commonwealth won\u2019t bring down the cost of groceries or make life more affordable for working families,\u201d Shapiro continued in the statement. \u201cInstead of trying to put on a show, he should get to work with Democrats and Republicans to actually cut costs for hard working families \u2014 as we have done here in Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Bannon, a MAGA stalwart and host of \u201cThe War Room\u201d podcast, told Blue Light News that he trusts in Trump\u2019s ability to carry forward the message on affordability and cost-of-living issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you’re gonna go on the road, go on it, but he\u2019s showing you that he\u2019s the best person to sell his program,\u201d Bannon said. \u201cAnd if you don\u2019t believe it\u2019s an \u2018A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus,\u2019 then you’re not the right guy to sell it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) was asked during an appearance on Fox Business earlier on Tuesday whether he agreed with Trump\u2019s grade of the economy \u2014 the specifics of which he steered clear from. \u201cI think the starting point is we’re digging out of a huge hole that we’re in as a result of the Biden administration,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cWhat the president is saying is we\u2019ve done a remarkable amount over the last 12 months. The economy is better. \u2026 But there\u2019s a lot more work to do. Working families that are still living paycheck to paycheck, they\u2019re still feeling crunched \u2014 by health care, by energy costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

White House spokesperson Kush Desai told POLITICO<\/a> that \u201cmuch work remains\u201d but that \u201cputting an end to Joe Biden\u2019s inflation and affordability crisis has been a Day One priority for President Trump\u201d and ticked off accomplishments including \u201cslashing costly regulations to securing historic drug pricing deals efforts that have cooled inflation and raised real wages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stacy Garrity, the GOP gubernatorial candidate and Pennsylvania state treasurer \u2014 who was scheduled to attend Trump\u2019s visit to Mount Pocono and has backed his tariffs<\/a> and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act<\/a> \u2014 didn\u2019t specifically address Trump\u2019s economic grade when asked if she agreed with the assessment. Matt Beynon, a spokesperson for Garrity, said she is \u201clooking forward to joining President Trump\u201d and that the \u201ctreasurer is looking forward to being a partner with\u201d Trump and \u201cnot a courtroom opponent like Josh Shapiro.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like this content? Consider signing up for Blue Light News’s <\/i>Playbook newsletter<\/i><\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ahead of President Donald Trump\u2019s remarks on the economy in a swing district in Northeastern Pennsylvania on Tuesday night, his self-grading of an \u201cA-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus\u201d on a key midterm issue is roiling the campaign trail. Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said in an exclusive statement to Blue Light News that Trump\u2019s remark \u2014 delivered during his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}