When CNN actually decides to give President Donald Trump an inch on anything positive about the economy, it’s the equivalent of a seismic earthquake rippling through the entire media landscape.
CNN Business Executive Editor and anti-Trump pseudo journalist David Goldman probably had a bit of indigestion when he ran a November 17 story headlined: “Trump is right: He lowered some of your costs.”
Of course, the headline also insisted: “But he also made many prices higher.” At least it's half-positive -- a shock coming from CNN.
After the Bidenomics-loving Goldman regurgitated his hypocritical rebuke of Trump for allegedly “downplaying America’s affordability crisis,” he proceeded to argue that “Trump’s policies, perhaps more than any president’s in recent memory, have directly influenced the prices on thousands of consumer goods – both lower and higher.”
Remember that this is the same guy who ran this insane headline just before the presidential election October 24, 2024 to prop up Biden: “America won the war on inflation. You still think the economy stinks.” Goldman tried to reprimand those plebeians who were still reeling from the disaster wrought on them by former President Joe Biden’s outrageous stimulus agenda: “Inflation has been tamed. Consumers are spending like crazy. Companies have more jobs available than job seekers to fill them. What more could you want, America?”
“Downplaying America’s affordability crisis” Goldman? Don’t make us laugh.
In his new piece, Goldman pointed to Trump’s policies that have lowered the prices of drugs, oil and even eggs. NewsBusters raked Goldman over the coals in May for publishing a story on falling egg prices that reeked of oxymoronic logic: “Trump’s egg price fiction has suddenly become reality.” This was the equivalent of saying, “Yeah, so the lies Trump told eventually turned out to be kind of true but he was still lying.”
On oil, Goldman tried to downplay Trump’s deregulatory agenda while still sort of giving him props for putting pressure on OPEC to lower prices: “Trump dismantled many oil drilling regulations that he claimed would expand US oil production – but, so far at least, that hasn’t made any meaningful difference.” Interesting, given that Politico published a story October 9 headlined, “How long will Trump’s oil boom last?” Politico admitted then that “Production is at record levels but that might change.” This begs the question: Would oil production be at the same “record levels” with the Biden-era regulations in place or not? Goldman doesn’t answer this question.
But of course, Goldman pivoted to attacking Trump’s reshuffling of the global trade deck as the main culprit behind other sectors' price increases, and even rehashed the same ridiculous argument that Trump made cuts to Medicaid. “By far the largest price increase on consumers that Trump has imposed came in the form of his sweeping tariffs on virtually every foreign country’s goods,” Goldman whined.
But here’s the inconvenient truth: tariffs have been shown to have little to zero impact on America’s inflation rates, while many on the left prophesied economic doom by this point. As Heartland Institute Vice president Justin Haskins wrote in a November 19 Hill op-ed, government data give a drastically different picture on the tariff issue:
[E]conomic data from government agencies and reports tell a very different story: So far, Trump’s tariffs are not driving inflation. In fact, some goods that are affected by tariffs have actually become more affordable. That doesn’t mean tariffs won’t cause higher prices in the months or years ahead. But right now, that’s not what’s happening.
Goldman even admits the “calculation” for showing tariffs’ impact was “tricky,” which doesn’t lend itself well to a comfortable level of reliability, at all. Goldman was one of the media hacks who was prophesying doom because of Trump’s tariffs as early as August, when he argued based on unnamed economists that they would “damage the global economy and take America’s standing in the world down a peg.”
Haskins further noted that “If tariffs were causing inflation, it would also be reasonable to expect gasoline prices to rise. But that isn’t happening either. Thus far in November, gas prices nationwide have been hovering around $3.10, about the same as last year.”
Goldman also lambasted Trump’s supposed “Historic cuts to America’s safety net programs, including Medicaid and food stamps,” which he argued would raise prices for “the country's neediest.” But as “conservative health policy experts” retorted to Fox News Digital November 14, “Republican changes have done nothing to harm those whom Medicaid was originally intended for — people not expected to be in the labor market, such as individuals with disabilities, pregnant women, children and seniors.” In addition, reported Fox, the experts “argue the Medicaid reforms built into Trump's tax cuts have actually improved the federal healthcare program for those it is supposed to be serving.” Context matters, eh Goldman?
