Former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews recently said President Trump and his officials are attempting to “gaslight” the American public with their messaging on the economy.
“Republicans spent years mocking the Biden administration for trying to gaslight the American people and telling them that the economy was great when people were feeling the exact opposite. And they clearly learned nothing from this because this is exactly what the Trump administration is doing,” Matthews said Friday on MS NOW’s “Deadline: White House” with Nicolle Wallace.
“They’re trying to gaslight their voters and tell them, ‘Everything’s fine,’ putting Kevin Hassett out there and having him go on the news and say that the economy is amazing. I mean, are you kidding me?” she added, referring to the National Economic Council director.
Her comments came after Trump hammered down on the positive impact of tariffs during remarks at General Motors’s Milford Proving Ground in Michigan last week and just a day after Hassett said the economy was doing “amazing.”
“Well, again, right now the economy does look amazing to me. The inflation’s going down, the unemployment rate is low,” Hassett said during a CNN appearance, where he denied poll results that found Americans believe the country’s financial health was currently very poor or somewhat poor.
“When you’ve got strong consumption growth, like we’re seeing right now, then consumers are by definition very optimistic. They’re not being cautious at all. So I just don’t believe that poll,” Hassett told anchor Pamela Brown.
Matthews argued economic pains have been “self-inflicted” by the second Trump administration through the Iran war and “asinine” tariffs that have caused people to “feel bamboozled.”
“They voted for President Trump because he said that he was going to lower prices on day one. He said that he was going to be the peace president. He said he was going to do all these things, and it turns out that he’s done the exact opposite,” Matthews told Wallace.
“And so it is just a slap in the face to the people that put him into office and that have supported him for them to continue to try to gaslight them,” she added.
