Anna Lefkowitz / MS NOW; Andrew Harnik / Getty Images |
At 8:30 a.m. last Friday morning, President Donald Trump’s best chance at good economic news before the midterm elections went poof.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the consumer price index rose in August by 0.4% and 3.4% over the past year. The “core CPI” (the less volatile measure that removes food and energy prices) rose 0.3% for the month and 2.4% annually. For the fifth month in a row, inflation-adjusted wages fell on a yearly basis.
Were this September 2025, the BLS report would be disappointing for the White House but hardly catastrophic. Inflation isn’t accelerating, and it remains well below its peak back in 2022. There were even some bright spots: Grocery prices were flat for the second straight month, for instance.
But this is September 2026, and the president and his party are out of time. |
