Trump’s inflation quip a ‘doozy’ for GOP midterm messaging

▪ Trump brushes off inflation report

▪ House to vote on FISA extension

▪ New House member sworn in

▪ California faces pressure on election procedures

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President Trump’s remarks on the latest inflation data are once again putting him at odds with Republicans and the narrative they hope to set ahead of the midterms.

Asked about Wednesday’s consumer price index report showing the inflation rate reaching 4.2 percent in May — the highest point in three years — the president appeared to brush off those concerns, telling reporters, “No, I love it. The numbers were great.”

“I love the inflation,” the president added.

Republican strategists tell Morning Report that Trump’s message runs counter to GOP efforts to communicate their focus on the economy to voters ahead of the midterms and puts members in the difficult position of having to defend the president’s comments.

“It’s extremely unhelpful to any Republican who’s on the ballot,” former Republican National Committee communications director Doug Heye said. “If you wanted to proactively get messaging wrong, this is how you would do it.”

Trump has on several occasions brushed off the economic and political fallout of the Iran war. He said last month that he wasn’t thinking “even a little bit” about Americans’ cost of living in negotiating with Iran and doesn’t care about the midterms.

Heye said he could understand the context of those past comments but, he added, “It’s hard to see any argument where this could be spun favorably.”

Republican strategist Ron Bonjean encouraged the White House to “clarify very quickly that Trump thought the inflation number would be much higher and that he is confident the number will come down once hostilities end with Iran.”

“GOP Members will need this air cover almost immediately so they can point to what Trump meant by this,” Bonjean said.

The president attempted to do that in an interview with The New York Post on Wednesday afternoon.

“I was talking about inflation numbers that will be so good as soon as the war ends. The numbers will come way down, that’s what I’m talking about,” Trump said. “I’m always taken out of context.”

Asked about the remarks, the White House referred The Hill to the president’s Truth Social post claiming the U.S. military successfully carried out a “secret mission” to move more than 100 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.

Republicans in Congress are already getting peppered with questions about the remarks.

CNN’s Manu Raju caught up with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who said Trump’s remarks were taken “totally out of context” and that the president is “laser focused on the domestic economic situation.”

“What he [Trump] was saying is, it’s going to be great to have that number and compare it to what comes next when we get these situations resolved,” Johnson said. “That’ll be a fun thing to consider and to compare.”

Regardless of the context, GOP strategists worry the remark will be clipped and included in midterm ads for Democrats around the country.

“Republicans have learned to shimmy and shake around the more colorful comments the President makes, and this one, admittedly, is a doozy. But his point is correct: A nuclear Iran is much worse than four percent inflation,” GOP political consultant Bill O’Reilly said.

“If inflation is reasonable and trending downward in September and October, this quip will be forgotten,” he continued. “If it’s rising, we’ll be seeing about a billion ads on it before Election Day.”

Decision Desk HQ chief elections analyst Geoffrey Skelley called the remarks “unhelpful” and noted how they reinforce voter sentiment, pointing to a recent poll showing just 29 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy and 21 percent approve of his handling of inflation.

“The midterms are five months away, and the country isn’t going to suddenly become dramatically more positive about this state of affairs,” Skelley said. “That leaves the GOP less time for public sentiment to gradually shift positively, making it more likely that Republicans will face pretty serious economic headwinds in the midterms.”

The president’s comments came as he warned Wednesday that the U.S. military could continue its........

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