CNN’s Abby Phillip Torpedoes Trump ‘Golden Age’ Chatter: American People Aren’t ‘Stupid’

CNN anchor Abby Phillip torpedoed talk of President Donald Trump’s “Golden Age” after a positive jobs report, saying “I don’t think the American people are stupid” when they slam Trump’s economy in polls.

On Friday night’s edition of CNN NewsNight, Phillip convened a panel consisting of Leigh McGowan, Horace Cooper, Stephen Moore, Denver Riggleman, and Franklin Leonard.

Phillip began a segment on the better-than-expected jobs report with Kevin Hassett’s boast that “the golden age is upon us” — but contrasted that boast with record-low consumer sentiment:

PHILLIP: Tonight, a new reason for optimism and rising economic anxiety — amid rising economic anxiety, the latest job report out today shows that the U.S. added 115,000 jobs last month, beating expectations almost double. The unemployment rate stayed the same at 4.3 percent. That’s a sign that the labor market is resilient as the Iran war and rising gas prices weigh heavily on Americans’ pocketbooks, and the White House jumped at the chance to brag.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HASSETT: These are two months in a row of absolutely blockbuster numbers.

The fact is that people still don’t have faith that the golden age is upon us, that Trump policies are working, but it keeps showing up in the data. And it’s really astonishing like what record-setting numbers we’re starting to see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Despite the job gains, consumer sentiment declined again this month, hitting a new record low, its lowest in decades.

And I do think, look, there are some good — a lot of good news in this jobs report, especially because what came before it was what a lot of people suggested was a jobs recession. And so there’s that. I do think Kevin Hassett, as he has been over the last few days, overstating it a little bit because the job creation levels in the last month and the month before are probably at or below what it was for most of Biden’s term.

But I just wonder for you, Stephen, are we seeing, like, a gap between the stock market, between the expectations of the market, which is really what we’re talking about here, and what real people are experiencing, how they’re feeling, their own anxieties about this economy?

MOORE: Yes. So, it’s a paradox. I mean, you’re right. Some of these statistics have shown improvement. I remember when I was on this show four or five weeks ago, we were talking about how we’re going to have stagflation, you know, rising unemployment and rising inflation at the same time. And it looks like — I like that word you used, resilient, because the U.S. economy is pretty resilient, and this latest report shows that.

But — and, look, you’re right, we have the NASDAQ, the S&P 500, and the Dow Jones are at or near all-time highs. Now, that’s a good thing. We want a good healthy stock market and most Americans are invested in the market.

But — and the jobs numbers were good but people are angry. People are really angry about gas prices. They’re angry about food and grocery prices. And it’s going to be really important for Republicans, if they want to be competitive in November, to get this economy moving and get those prices down. And that means, you know, step one is get the Strait of Hormuz open so that oil is flowing, so people aren’t paying $4.50 a gallon.

But, remember, by the way, before this all happened, we had the lowest gas prices in 50 years adjusted for inflation. We can get back to that.

MCGOWAN: Can I ask a question? I’m not an economist by any means.

So, on the surface I can see that the labor market looks stable, right? The unemployment is holding, this kind of thing. But underneath, isn’t the market really being reshaped? Like I feel like it’s been happening for a long time with the inventions of things like the tractor and the assembly line and computers and the internet and that kind of thing. And now we have this next iteration of A.I. coming in, with things like data centers, and they’re going to be replacing human workers with no real plan as to how we’re going to give jobs to the humans that are being replaced. So, I feel like we’re right at the edge of a real crisis, and we’re not dealing with that. Does that seem reasonable?

MOORE: So, this is a very good point you’re making. So, we are on the precipice of one of the greatest productivity revolutions in the history of the world, and it’s coming very quickly. Robotics is going to change everything. You know, we have 2 million truck drivers in this country. Probably in 15 years, there will be zero truck drivers. It’ll all be automated, and people are very nervous about that.

MCGOWAN: Understandably.

MOORE: In fact, if you look at the polling, people are more nervous about this coming revolution than they are optimistic about it. The technology companies have done it. They’re investing trillions of dollars in this, and they’re not asking the American people what they want. Have you noticed what’s going on in these communities, Abby, all over the country? People are saying, no, we don’t want the data centers. We don’t want them.

PHILLIP: Not only are they’re not asking, they don’t — they’re like, we don’t care.

MCGOWAN: They’re not listening.

MOORE: Exactly. So —

PHILLIP: And, I mean, even looking deeply at the job numbers, underemployment is up. I think people — there’s a lot of movement in the economy that is, some of it, due to A.I., but I think people are seeing the writing on the wall. They’re experiencing right now their budgets getting stretched, and they feel truly nervous.

RIGGLEMAN: I think there’s a couple things. I have an A.I. company, which is so interesting that you asked that question, by the way. So, I’ve hired about 20 or 30 people in the last four to five months. The scary thing is, when you’re talking about A.I., is that you’re right, when we’re looking at some of the actual development that we’re doing, we’re able to actually have some shortcuts based on artificial intelligence.

The other thing, though, that we’re finding, we’re needing to hire more people for certain other trades that we’re actually finding out, and we can have a whole conversation about. It’s been fascinating for me to run an A.I. company. The other thing, Stephen, I was thinking about what you said about the jobs. 115,000 feels okay. I also own whiskey distilleries, and we got a 50 percent tariff on bottles, and we had to raise our prices by $2 per bottle based on some random tariff.

But here’s the thing, I feel like I’m in eighth grade, and I go to my mom, and I’m like, mom, I did so much better on my math test today. And she goes, how’d you do, honey? I said, Look, a C-minus. Look at that. And that’s what we’re getting right now from the White House, right, because it’s better than the D that I would usually got because I didn’t go to school. I was a vagrant.

But, anyway, so — but the thing that — I’m sorry. But the thing that Stephen said, too, you know, that I was thinking about, I was thinking about the jobs created in the 16 months since Trump was president. It’s 420,000, give or take. I wanted to do a real comparison with Biden. The last 16 months of Biden was 2 million jobs. So, that’s where I’m almost, I have this, like weird jittery feeling based on sort of the reshaping of the baseline of the American economy, but I’m also looking at the tariffs that our families are still dealing with.

My wife is a CEO. We’re dealing with glass tariffs, we’re dealing with cork tariffs, we’re dealing with supply chain issues. We’re still dealing with COVID surcharges, right, on some of the actual things that we’re getting in our supply chain. So, my thing is, I don’t — we don’t see it at a micro level at our distillery. We were 45 percent down on sales over the last two years, 45 percent in people, but we’re up about 38 percent per ticket, but that’s because we upped our prices so gosh dang much, people have to spend money. So, that’s the issue that I’m talking about. It looks like it’s a C-minus when everybody’s saying it’s an A-plus from the administration.

PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, most Americans, 64 percent, say the economy right now is weak. They blame Trump. They think that he’s — I mean, his approval ratings on handling of the economy and cost of living are really bargain basement right now. And I don’t think the American people are stupid. I don’t think that they’re misguided. I think they’re just telling it like it is for them.

LEONARD: Yes. I mean, look, I think more jobs is great. But like you said, when you leave that job and you go put gas in the car so you can go back to work the next day, and then you go buy groceries, and you go home, and the kids need new shoes, and you need a new washing machine, and everything’s more expensive because of the war, because of the tariffs, you’re not going to be happy.

So, great, there are more jobs. That is undeniably a good thing, even if it’s significantly less job growth than we saw during the last 16 months of Biden’s term. It was actually more than 2 million. I know it was like 186,000 on average of every month, over the last 12 months of his presidency, but that’s not making people’s lives better. Their quality of life is down, and they know it.

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.

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