Donald Trump was sharply criticized online after he gave a meandering answer devoid of substance to a supporter’s question about the cost of rent.
The former president, who phoned in to “Fox & Friends” Wednesday, was taking questions from voters at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota
“Out of eight children that I’m a father and a stepfather to, five of them are struggling, and I’m giving them part of my income on a regular basis,” said one voter, who had a “Trump 2024” patch on his vest.
“How are you going to make the economy — not just the food and electricity — but bring down the rent prices, the housing prices, so that these kids can survive without their parents’ help?”
Trump’s response included some of his best hits: grossly exaggerating inflation numbers, lying about the price of bacon and pledging to gut environmental protections and boost domestic fossil fuel production.
But first, Trump kicked things off by celebrating that he probably has the support of “at least 99, perhaps 100% of” the people Fox News was speaking to at the event.
“We’re going to drill, baby, drill, we’re gonna bring down the cost of energy,” he went on, repeating one of his campaign mantras. “Energy’s what caused the worst inflation, I think, in the history of our country. Food prices are up 50%, sometimes more.”
“You look at bacon. Bacon has quadrupled. You can’t order bacon or anything. We’re living horribly,” he continued. “We have the worst inflation we’ve probably ever had in our country, and it started because of energy. We’re gonna drill, baby, drill.”
He also threw in a hard-to-interpret comment about China.
“And then we’re gonna have China, and all of these countries that were treating us good when I was there … it took me a long time to get them to behave properly, all of these countries are gonna again, stop like,” he added.
(Bacon prices have not even doubled, let alone quadrupled, since Joe Biden has been president, and inflation is nowhere near its highest rate in U.S. history).
Commentators on social media trashed Trump’s response, calling it “word salad” and a “non-answer,” and accused him of disregarding a genuine question with rambling nonsense.
See some of the reactions below.