Republicans Desperately Try to Ignore Damning Inflation Report

Members of Congress don’t want to talk about how inflation is surging in the Trump administration.

As inflation hit 3.5 percent in March—its highest rate in three years—congressional Republicans are urging Americans to cover their eyes and ears.

The Commerce Department revealed Thursday that prices increased 3.5 percent since last year, thanks to surging gas prices amid the Iran war. Even if volatile energy and food prices are excluded, the inflation rate was still a shocking 3.2 percent.

Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina suggested the public should live more in the future than the depressing present. “The fact of the matter is that all of the cylinders are kicking,” he told Fox Business. “You can even feel in our environment how good things are getting. Gas prices continue to come down, which means that your groceries will come down a little bit as well. We’ve got a lot of good signs in the economy.”

Representative Tim Burchett of Texas admitted that gas prices are rising, but claimed Republicans were innocent in the matter.

“It has to do with the greed of the oil companies,” he said. “We buy zero oil from Iran. 90 percent of their oil they sell to China. They’re just gouging us. I blame Congress.” (Burchett is a member of Congress, where Republicans hold a majority in both branches.)

He continued: “Quit telling me, ‘Oil is a commodity, Burchett, you don’t understand it.’ We don’t prop up every other commodity with billions of dollars in offsets and rebates and all this garbage.”

Does Burchett understand global markets, though? While oil companies do lobby Congress aggressively (they mostly lobby Republicans, who overwhelmingly support fossil fuels), the price of oil is up right now because the Strait of Hormuz is closed, making it harder to export. Burchett seemed to understand this point until fairly recently. In 2022, he went on Newsmax and loudly blamed the war in Ukraine and the Biden administration for high gas prices.

Steve Scalise of Louisiana chimed in during a CNBC interview, though he didn’t have his numbers quite right. Asked about inflation by host Joe Kernen, Scalise said: “You go back two years ago, we were paying almost $6 a gallon for gas. Right now it’s in the 3’s.… It’s still 50 [percent down].”

“When were we paying $6?” host Joe Kernen asked. Gas peaked at a monthly average of $4.93 a gallon under Biden in June 2022.

“Two and a half years ago,” Scalise said.

“That wasn’t the average price,” Kernen said.

“Today we are 30 percent below where we were two years ago,” Scalise retorted, reducing his estimate down 20 points from the figure he’d just used. “We are lowering inflation.”

“You must have been on vacation in California,” Kernan said. “Two years ago, in April 2024, we were at about $3.65. We are actually above where we were then.” (Correct.) Scalise subsequently generalized his claim to say gas prices “were well into the fives under Biden.”

Another Texas Republican, Brian Babin, told MeidasTouch prices have “come down dramatically” since Trump took office. “The president keeps his promises,” Babin said. Asked to grade Trump’s economic policies, he said, “He’s got a B average right now. He had an A, it went to a B, and it’s gonna go back to an A.” Most Americans would disagree with Babin’s assessment, but cut him some slack; his net worth is over $2 million, so he’s a little out of touch.

Core Inflation Rate Jumps to Its Highest in Years Thanks to Iran War

Republicans just got some terrible inflation news ahead of the midterms.

Inflation is at its highest level in three years thanks to President Trump.

Prices are up 3.5 percent compared to last year, the biggest year-to-year increase in three years, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Much of this is attributable to gas prices due to the war in Iran. But even with fuel and food subtracted, inflation is still up by 3.2 percent, above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target.

The rising prices outweigh the modest 0.6 percent gain in U.S. workers’ incomes, the department’s report said. Any tax refunds that Americans receive are also being blunted by higher gas and food prices.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that cuts to interest rates are unlikely to happen for months due to the war. In contrast, last year, the Fed cut rates three times. Usually, the central bank prefers to keep rates unchanged, or it raises them to combat inflation.

All of this doesn’t bode well for the party in power. Trump and the GOP campaigned in 2024 on lower prices and against high inflation, but thanks to a war of choice and the president’s whimsical tariffs, the economic gains created by President Biden have been wiped out. Many voters who thought otherwise are now starting to open their eyes, and Republicans’ only hope might be blatant attempts to choose their own voters.

Trump’s Sinister Plan for State’ Voter Rolls Exposed

Administration officials allegedly sought to weaponize voter data to influence elections.

Trump administration officials arranged to share sensitive voter information with an outside group keen on undermining America’s electoral process.

Documents first obtained by advocacy nonprofit Democracy Forward via public records requests reveal correspondence between DOGE personnel and a key organization that fueled the 2020 election conspiracy, detailing how voter data would be transferred between the two entities.

The documents offer a clear trail of Trump administration officials working to share sensitive voter data with an external party in a covert arrangement.

While the messages were heavily redacted by the government prior to their release, at least one email illustrates the general tone between the unnamed organization and the government body as they shared password-protected information related to U.S. elections: “We live for this!” the conspiracy group wrote.

Most of the names and entities involved in the information exchanges were also redacted. Yet the emails showcase how government officials moved to exchange sensitive federal data with regard to election-related activity.

“The Trump-Vance administration continues to hide what it is doing with Americans’ personal data, who it has unlawfully shared it with, and why,” Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman told Democracy Docket.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration admitted to a similar scheme conducted by DOGE. In January, the Social Security Administration revealed via court filing that Elon Musk’s underlings had engaged in unauthorized communications and data planning with election-denial groups. The administration did not name the outside groups involved, but at least one stands out in the crowd.

Mere weeks into Donald Trump’s second term, election-denial group True the Vote appealed to federal employees at Musk’s slash-and-burn temporary advisory body.

Their original message was public, pasted to their website in early March 2025: “Given DOGE’s mandate to enhance governmental efficiency and your recent insights into federal data discrepancies, we urge you to extend your investigative rigor to the........

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