Republican strategist Scott Jennings didn’t hold back on CNN Monday night. He reminded liberal panelists they had no right to complain about prices under Trump after the “historic inflation” under Biden.
The Consumer Price Index rose 3.0% in January. Jennings wasn’t having it when Solomon Jones and Karen Finney accused Trump of failing to tackle inflation.
“It was funny that he said, you know, he said, ‘Yes, I‘m going to cut government. I’m going to cut waste. I’m going to cut fraud. I’m going to…’ — you know what else he said he was going to cut? Prices. That hasn’t happened. That’s not what —” Jones said before Jennings jumped in.
“You want that in four weeks?” Jennings fired back.
Jones and Finney then claimed Trump fired 75,000 federal workers instead of lowering prices. Jennings wasn’t buying it.
“He got rid of the whole agency,” Finney argued, referencing Trump’s decision to cut over 90% of USAID’s workforce after a review.
Jennings pushed back. “Do you think it is a legitimate political debating point for the previous administration to have overseen historic inflation for four years, and then you to come out and say, ‘Four weeks, I guess Trump‘s a failure?’”
Jones doubled down. “He said, ‘On day one, I will lower your grocery prices,’ and he has not done it, prices have gone up.”
Egg prices have nearly doubled since November. A bird flu outbreak wiped out millions of chickens. Groceries have surged 23.6% since 2020.
Jennings acknowledged inflation concerns but defended Trump’s actions. “A lot of his executive orders were aimed at energy, which is, I think, the fastest thing he can do — energy regulations,” he said.
“But really, what he does now over the next couple of months with the Congress, I mean, his real agenda will come in the reconciliation bill: taxes, energy, immigration,” Jennings continued.
“The stuff he really ran on, that’s where the real policy rubber hits the road and he’s going to have to get these guys in Congress to go along with him,” he said. “But if they cannot get that done, that will be a problem. But I think they’ll get there.”