Fox News veteran delivers harsh reality check to Trump

Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume sought to spell out in very clear language the problem that President Donald Trump does not appear to be catching — and he did it with some very damning numbers.

On Wednesday, Trump called on the Federal Reserve and his own appointed chair Kevin Warsh to immediately lower interest rates after Warsh announced a rate hike over inflation concerns.

But Hume pointed out the Fed is not the problem, Trump is.

“The Fed is concerned about the same thing that our polling … that came out today suggests the American public is concerned about,” Hume said on Wednesday’s Special Report. “… That’s the issue that helped elect Donald Trump, and I’m talking about inflation. Right now, the question has been raised, ‘Has the Trump administration made the economy better or worse?’ Fully 63 percent say he’s made it worse, and that’s 11 percentage points higher than the number of people who thought that last year.”

Mediaite reports Hume then cited a Fox News survey revealing 62 percent of respondents say grocery prices are a “major problem” for their families, and 61 percent said the same about ballooning gas prices, largely thanks to Trump unilateral war with Iran.

“The president was elected in the hope, I believe, that inflation could be brought under control,” Hume said. “And to some extent on many products it has, but when it comes to gasoline, it reflects on the Iran war, and groceries, which have continued to go up. The problem is worse. And this is plaguing the Republicans … and it’s certainly plaguing the president. And it’s driving down his approval rating.”

The president’s approval rating is very underwater across all polls, reports Mediaite. A UMass survey from August had his approval rating at just 32 percent. In another poll, Mediaite reports Democrats lead Republicans in a generic congressional ballot 51 percent to 43 percent.

Hume said Vice President JD Vance had a point in urging voters to give Republicans “another chance” in November’s midterms.

“Don't give power to the people who caused the problems that we're fixing,” Vance told the audience. “Give us another chance or give us another couple of years to continue to work on the amazing things that we've been doing for the past two years.”

While CNN’s Jake Tapper described Vance’s plea as sounding “like a desperate boyfriend,” Hume said the economy is actually growing, even if voters can’t necessarily feel it.

Jobs are fairly plentiful, he added, and the poverty rate is dropping.

“But this business with prices is just, it’s just killing this administration and the president’s party,” Hume insisted.