'Buyer’s remorse': Trump’s consumer confidence drops below Biden levels

15 August

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference about deploying federal law enforcement agents in Washington to bolster the local police presence, in the Press Briefing Room at the White House

U.S. Consumers appear to be dreading their Trumpian future, according to the University of Michigan’s most recent Consumer Sentiment Index.

“Consumer sentiment fell back about 5 percent in August, declining for the first time in four months,” according to the report. “This deterioration largely stems from rising worries about inflation.”

Preliminary results for the month showed consumer confidence down 13.7 percent from a year ago, during former President Joe Biden's term. Despite confidence being higher under the last administration, voters still rolled Biden out of office, largely based on economic dissatisfaction at high prices.

The report also revealed that consumers continue to expect both inflation and unemployment to deteriorate in the future, with “year-ahead inflation expectations” rising from 4.5 percent last month to 4.9 percent this month.

“This increase was seen across multiple demographic groups and all three political affiliations,” the report adds.

The numbers put an end to two consecutive months of receding inflation for short-run expectations and three straight months for long-run expectations.

Social media reacted badly to Bloomberg Reporter Joe Weisenthal posting the “ugly consumer sentiment numbers,” and blamed President Donald Trump for much of the anxiety.

“It’s incredible how back we are,” one commenter snidely posted on X, while another pointed out how thoroughly “the media buried Biden's presidency using data points like this but seem oddly disinterested now that Trump is back in charge.”

Another online commenter posted: “Buyer's remorse is hitting folks earlier than expected,” and blamed the courts, the media, corporate America, the Congressional GOP, and the GOP base for failing to provide “any check on Trump.”

Still another X user warned that “we are just now seeing increasing wholesale inflation as businesses have eaten through their pre-tariff glut. That means we are almost certainly going to see higher prices hitting the shelves very soon."

See the preliminary numbers at this link.

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