President Donald Trump Wednesday said: “I love the inflation” after being asked if he was concerned about new consumer price index data that showed an annual inflation rate of 4.2%, a three-year high.
Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, also predicted that inflation was “going to drop like a rock” following the US-led war on inflation. Iran is finished. The president linked this prediction to a confusing statement about the US “catch” oil and ships.
“No, I love it, the numbers were great,” Trump said when a reporter asked him about the CPI number released earlier in the morning.
“You know what I really like? I like inflation. Do you know why?” » Trump said. “Because as soon as this war is over, you know I can say it now… you know we have extracted millions of barrels of oil.”
“No one knows. You know who doesn’t know? Iranuntil now,” Trump said.
Read more about CNBC’s politics coverage“The other night we destroyed 22 ships, late at night, without lights, because they didn’t have radar, because we destroyed them,” the president said. “That’s why oil is $85 a barrel.”
“We’re extracting millions of barrels of oil, millions of barrels every night,” Trump said.
It was not immediately clear what Trump meant by “withdrawing” from oil and ships, or how it related to consumer prices.
CNBC has requested comment from the White House and the Department of Energy.
Energy Secretary Chris Wrightwho was testifying at a congressional hearing on Wednesday, said he was not aware that the United States was withdrawing millions of barrels from Iran, the Reuters news agency reported.
Wright said the U.S. military had helped some oil tankers transit the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway between Iran and Oman, and that oil traffic had increased “very significantly” through the strait over the past week, Reuters reported.
While the CPI showed annual inflation at its highest level in three years on Wednesday, core inflation, which excludes the cost of food and energy, was 2.9% per year. This is consistent with economists’ predictions.
But Trump’s comments on inflation come as fellow Republicans worry that consumer angst over rising prices could hurt Republican lawmakers’ chances of retaining their slim majorities in both houses of Congress in November’s elections.
In May, Trump raised eyebrows when he told reporters, “I’m not thinking about the financial situation of the American people,” saying his goal in the war against Iran was to ensure that the Islamic Republic did not obtain nuclear weapons.
Several Democrats quickly posted video on social media of Trump’s latest comments on inflation.
“People can’t afford to feed their families. Your struggle is a joke to him,” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker wrote on X,
Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, also tweeted the video, with the message: “‘I love inflation’ – Donald Trump.”
Democratic strategist Jon Cooper, in his own X post about the video, said, “The ads write themselves.”
—Megan Casella of CNBC contributed to this article