Donald Trump has doubled down on his remark about not considering the financial plight of everyday Americans when considering foreign policy, saying that what he had said was a “perfect statement.”
“I’d make it again,” the president replied, when asked about the comments by Fox News’ Bret Baier, in an interview that aired Friday evening following his two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Shortly before his departure for Beijing, Trump was asked to what extent “Americans’ financial situations” motivated him to strike a deal with Iran and open the Strait of Hormuz. “Not even a little bit, I don’t think about the Americans’ financial situation, I don’t think about anybody,” he replied.
Speaking to Baier, Trump defended the comment, saying that Americans would be facing “short-term pain,” with regard to gas prices, which have more than doubled and remained consistently high since the start of the war in February.
The current national average price for regular gasoline in the U.S. is about $4.53 per gallon, according to GasBuddy. This is up roughly $0.40 from last month and more than $1.30 higher than the same time last year.
Elsewhere in the interview, Baier read statements from several Trump supporters who complained the president had “broken promises” of keeping the U.S. out of foreign wars and keeping costs low.
“It’s going to come down very fast,” Trump replied before going on to brag about the stock market.
“You say to [supporters], look, we’ve got a problem. We just hit the highest stock market price ever, by the way then, when I went in, now again with the war it’s higher now. There are more people working right now in the United States of America than at any point ever in the history of our country,” the president said.
Earlier this week, and shortly before Trump’s original comments, the Labor Department released inflation data showing the Consumer Price Index spiking 3.8 percent from the same point last year, including a .06 percent jump last month in the CPI.
Gasoline prices have surged by 5.4 percent last month alone as the ongoing standoff between the U.S. and Iran continues and the Strait of Hormuz, which controls 20 percent of the world’s oil supply transit, remains blocked.
A separate survey, also released this week, showed Americans overwhelmingly blame the president for the record-high gas prices and rising mortgage rates and food costs that have followed.