Americans have confronted plenty of data over the last week on inflation, and all of it is deeply discouraging. Earlier this week, we learned the consumer price index reached its highest level in nearly three years, as the inflation rate climbed above wage growth. That came on the heels of nearly identical news on the core personal consumption expenditures price index. Soon after, wholesale prices also posted their highest annual increase in more than three years.

Not surprisingly, this has led to multiple national polls showing more than three quarters of Americans believe Donald Trump’s policies have made the cost of living worse, not better.

The result is an obvious and multifaceted problem for a president who’s directly responsible for having created the economic conditions that are fueling the affordability crisis he was elected to address.

Part of the broader challenge relates to policy, since the White House doesn’t have a plan to address the rising cost of living, other than to hope things better after the war in Iran eventually ends. Another part is political, with Republicans likely to suffer a backlash at the hands of angry voters as the midterm elections draw near.

Then there’s the rhetorical angle, punctuated by a president who apparently no longer knows what to say about the problem he made worse.

A few weeks ago, for example, Trump misstated basic details about recent history on the inflation rate. That continued earlier this week, when the Republican insisted the inflation rate was 1.7% “just before the war,” which wasn’t even close to being true.

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Steve Benen

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

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