Andrew Ross Sorkin Left Nearly Speechless On Morning Joe By Trump’s ‘Rock and Roll’ Reaction To Bad Inflation Report
Squawk Box co-anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin could not make heads or tails of President Donald Trump’s reaction to the last economics report showing that inflation has gone up.
Consumer prices rose .5% from December to January, meaning inflation bumped up to 3%, the highest rate in months, according to Consumer Price Index data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday. Trump responded to the latest inflation data by blaming the policies of former President Joe Biden, calling it “Biden inflation.” He also touted his upcoming tariffs on goods from countries like Mexico and Canada and argued interest rates should be lowered.
“Interest Rates should be lowered, something which would go hand in hand with upcoming Tariffs!!! Lets Rock and Roll, America!!!” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Sorkin struggled to find words for a moment on Wednesday during a Morning Joe visit to respond to Trump’s “rock and roll, America” message. He argued the only policies Trump is referencing — lowering interest rates and putting tariffs in place — would feed inflation further.
He argued:
“Well…I don’t even know what to say to that because the truth is if the tariffs go into place that is going to be inflationary. And then you’re going to lower rates even more, and that’s going to be inflationary. And we’re talking here about how do you get prices to actually come down. And we’re talking about the exact opposite. It just doesn’t — the math doesn’t add. There’s no chart that I know about.”
Sorkin also noted that Trump’s tariffs plan had already thrown the market into an uneasy place as companies are now stockpiling goods, rushing to get items shipped across borders before price increases.
The CNBC anchor argued Americans are essentially being slapped with an extra tax as inflation continues to grow.
“Inflation is a tax on Americans. That’s all you just need to know,” he said. “A different form of a tax, but it’s a tax.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
