It seemed like a straightforward question. During a Q&A with reporters last week, Donald Trump was asked, “When you’re negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are American financial situations motivating you to make a deal?”

Without hesitating, the president replied, “Not even a little bit.” The Republican added that, as part of his focus on preventing Iran from having nuclear weapons, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.”

It was a brutal quote, not only because of its callousness, but because Trump has spent so much time proving the underlying point true. As my MS NOW colleague Zeeshan Aleem added, “The truth, in this case, is that Trump obviously doesn’t care about ordinary Americans’ financial well-being. It’s sticky not just because he said it, but because he has long been acting like it.”

As last week came to an end, the president sat down with Fox News’ Bret Baier, who offered his guest an opportunity to walk back the rhetoric. He did the opposite.

“That’s a perfect statement; I’d make it again,” Trump said. He added, “Very simple, when people hear me say it, everybody agrees.”

As the interview progressed, the president went on to concede that he’s imposing “a little pain” on Americans (phrasing that echoed his rhetoric from last year about his tariffs agenda), though he insisted the “pain” is temporary and ultimately will be reversed after the war in Iran ends.

When Baier asked Trump to respond to the concerns of a retired farmer in Pennsylvania who said he’s struggling with his finances, the president boasted as part of his answer, “We just hit the highest stock market price ever.”

The comments came the same week in which he claimed he’d successfully lowered prices “incredibly” (that hasn’t happened), which followed similar claims about a “very substantial” drop in gas prices (that also hasn’t happened).

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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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