(He Doesn’t Know, Either)

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Near the end of his Super Bowl interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, Donald Trump was given a question that he should have had an answer to, as it was the sort of thing that he flogged on the campaign trail when he wasn’t doing a disturbing dance.*

Baier asked him when the American people can expect prices to go down for things like groceries and energy, whether they need to be patient.**

Trump responded: “No, I think we’re gonna become a rich. . .Look, we’re not that rich right now. That’s because we let all these nations take advantage of us.”

Then he noted the trade deficits with Mexico and Canada.

Let’s break this down.

• He didn’t come near to answering the question. When will it be cheaper to buy a dozen eggs and a tank of gas? He had no answer to that.
• What does becoming “a rich” have to do with the price of a bag of burgers at McDonalds or the kilowatt hours on a home electric bill?
• “How is it that “we’re not that rich right now”? America has the highest GDP in the world. The world.
• And what’s this about letting “nations take advantage of us”? They have things for sale, whether it is petroleum from the Alberta oil sands or avocados from Jalisco, and Americans buy them. Turns out that they have more we want to buy than they want to buy from us. So, are they taking “advance of us” or are we providing an insufficient number of things they want to buy? Econ 101, folks.

The fact that Donald Trump can’t answer a simple question without going into a rant about victimization is something people who thought their lives would be made better by his election need to hear.

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*Can you imagine the outrage that would have echoed far and wide were Barack Obama, when he was president, spent a fraction of the amount of time dancing on stage that Trump does? If you saw your grandpa on a stage making those moves, wouldn’t you quickly escort him off?

**Remember when Trump made it seem as though on Day One he was going to make magic happen such that we would all be in a Golden Age? While he and Elon Musk have done much to deal with what seems to be substantive issues (and they are substantive to the people who have lost their jobs or who are suffering because we no longer think it is good to help people who are less fortunate), he hasn’t done anything that would help regular Americans. Like this from Trading Economics: “Eggs US increased 1.28 USD/DOZEN or 22.03% since the beginning of 2025, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks the benchmark market for this commodity. Historically, Eggs US reached an all time high of $7.09 in January of 2025. source: USDA.” On January 17, before he took office, a dozen eggs cost $6.12. On January 24, in office, they were up to $6.55. And by January 30, $7.09. Somehow putting tariffs on goods coming from Canada and Mexico aren’t going to do much to make things more affordable. In fact, lots of things will cost American grocery and gasoline buyers more. Which means they will have less money for eggs that evidently aren’t becoming less expensive.