Trump's 'wildly out of touch' take on everyday prices is baffling economists - MSNBC Reports

[progree]

1. Both inflation (CPI) and core CPI have averaged a 3.6 annualized rate during the last 3 months

Last edited Sun Nov 9, 2025, 08:43 AM - Edit history (1)

It's not comforting to me at all that the last 3 months have averaged 3.6% (annualized) for both the CPI and the core CPI. The 3 month average is my favorite gauge of RECENT inflation. The 1 month number can be dismissed as a "one off", while the 12 month average (year-over-year) has too much old data in it to be considered a good measure of RECENT inflation -- half the months are March 2025 or older, for example. Four of the months are Biden-era months.

Regular CPI


More graphs at: https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3552722

News report from the source: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm
CPI data series: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0
CORE CPI data series: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0L1E

He harped on energy and gasoline prices at length in an extended clip I saw

Energy: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0E
Down 0.5% since January,, and Up 2.9% year-over-year (September 2025 over September 2024)

OK, he's kinda right on energy (down since January when he took office January 20), but a lot of that is a function of ever-shifting global supply and demand for oil. Most everything else is moving up in cost, but of course he cherry-picked one item that wasn't.

In the extended clip he also mentioned the inflation rate,, he says we're at 2% -- which means only one thing -- prices (on average overall) are higher now than before. Any positive number above 0% means prices are overall on average increasing. So you can't claim costs (overall) are falling or lower, while admitting to a positive inflation rate.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-hits-back-at-criticism-of-the-economy-under-his-second-administration-we-are-the-victors-on-affordability/vi-AA1Q1QQH

Unfortunately, I can't find a seasonally adjusted version of gasoline prices (a subset of energy costs)
BLS data finder - https://www.bls.gov/data/