Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) told CNN on Tuesday that President Donald Trump is “insulting” Americans by pretending the economy is doing well, despite ongoing cost-of-living pressures.
Ryan was responding to a new interview in which Trump again boasted about his economic performance and brushed off concerns about rising prices.
Speaking to Politico in an interview released on Tuesday, Trump gave himself an "A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus" on his handling of the economy, blaming former President Joe Biden for any problems the country faces.
“Prices are all coming down,” Trump said, adding: “Everything is coming down.”
Ryan disagreed.
"It sounds like the made-up grades he got in college from everything that I've heard," he mocked. "But in reality, you talk to my constituents — I represent a district of hard-working people across the board, above and beyond any partisanship. They are getting crushed right now. Specifically, housing costs, food and grocery costs, health care and utility costs, and for the president to be so dismissive of that after running — centering his campaign on lowering those costs. It's just insulting."
Trump is scheduled to deliver an address Tuesday focused on high costs for food, housing, health insurance, and other pocketbook issues that many voters say have worsened over the past year.
Politico noted that consumer prices rose about 3% in 2025 according to the Consumer Price Index, and that health insurance premiums have jumped sharply as Affordable Care Act subsidies were rolled back.
When challenged on the dramatically increasing prices of health insurance in the absence of Affordable Care Act subsidies, Trump dismissed the question: “Don’t be dramatic. Don’t be dramatic.”
Ryan argued that Trump's dismissive attitude about the challenges Americans face "degrades the trust" in the country.
"So, it's just — and I think these are linked, by the way," Ryan added about Trump's inability to focus on the economy over foreign policy. "Like the attempt to distract from the core economic pressure people are feeling. I think we've seen a series of those things by the president to try to, in this case, I believe what's really happening off the coast of Venezuela is the president is trying to bring us into another forever war."