“I love inflation,” President Donald Trump said Wednesday when asked if he was concerned about new consumer price index data that showed annual inflation at 4.2%, the highest in three years.
President Trump also told reporters in the Oval Office that he expected inflation “to drop like a rock” after the U.S. war with Iran ends.
The president linked that prediction to a confusing statement that the United States would “take away” oil and shipping.
Asked by a reporter about the CPI numbers released early in the morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, President Trump said, “No, I like them. The numbers were great.”
“You know what I really like? I love inflation. Do you know why?” Trump said. “Because as soon as this war is over, I can tell you that now…you know we’re taking out millions of barrels of oil.”
“Nobody knows that. Who doesn’t? Iran, until now,” Trump said.
“We destroyed 22 ships last night in the middle of the night with no lights on because they had no radar and we exploded the crap,” the president said. “That’s why oil is $85 a barrel.”
“We’re pumping out millions of barrels of oil every night,” Trump said.
It was not immediately clear what Trump meant by “removal” of oil and ships and how that would relate to consumer prices.
CNBC has reached out to the White House and Department of Energy for comment.
According to Reuters, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, testifying at a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, said he had no knowledge that the United States was taking millions of barrels out of Iran.
Wright said the U.S. military helped some oil tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway between Iran and Oman, and said there was a “very meaningful” increase in oil shipments through the strait last week, Reuters reported.
The CPI on Wednesday showed annual inflation at its highest level in three years, while core inflation, which excludes food and energy costs, stood at 2.9% annually. This is in line with economists’ expectations.
But President Trump’s comments about inflation come as Republican lawmakers worry that consumer fears about rising prices could hurt their chances of maintaining narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress in November’s elections.
President Trump raised eyebrows in May when he insisted that his focus in the war with Iran was to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear weapons, telling reporters that he was “not thinking about the economic situation of the American people.”
Several Democratic lawmakers quickly posted videos of President Trump’s latest comments on inflation on social media.
“People can’t afford to feed their families. Your struggles are a joke to him,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wrote of X.
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Andy Kim also tweeted the video with the message, “‘I love inflation’ — Donald Trump.”
“The ad writes itself,” Democratic strategist Jon Cooper said in his X post about the video.
—CNBC’s Megan Casella contributed to this article.
