President Trump did something remarkable this week. He told the truth. 

During his first administration, Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims. Who knows how many times he’s lied this time around. God bless the reporters who are keeping track. 

So when Trump was asked this week to what extent Americans’ financial situations were motivating him to end the war with Iran, I wasn’t expecting him to be honest.  

“Not even a little bit,” he said. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.”

Yeah, that checks out. Inflation is up, rising a lot faster than Americans’ wages. Gas prices are still rising, the highest they’ve been in years. Groceries, electricity, housing, health care, clothing, coffee– all have gotten more expensive since Trump took office. More than 8 million Americans are working multiple jobs right now and still struggling to make ends meet. Expect that number to keep going up. 

This wasn’t just preventable, it was intentional. It’s like they saw that the dumpster was starting to smoke and they responded by throwing away the fire extinguisher. 

Trump saw that people were struggling to make ends meet, so he forced cost-raising tariffs on families and small businesses.  

Congressional Republicans saw that the wealth gap was growing, so they decided to give bigger tax breaks to massive corporations and wealthy donors. 

They saw that grocery costs were spiking, so they cut food assistance programs. 

They saw that health care was becoming more expensive, so they allowed the tax credits to die that would help families pay their premiums. 

They saw that people were at risk of losing their health insurance, so they cut the last safety net– Medicaid. 

They saw that Americans were upset about wasteful spending, so they’re trying to spend a billion dollars of taxpayer funding on Trump’s ballroom.  

And they see that Americans are upset about the direction of our country, so they’re trying to silence our voices. 

To quote a North Carolina legend, Maya Angelou, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” 

Trump and MAGA Republicans have shown us time after time who they are. They don’t care about your community. They don’t care about your family. They don’t care about you. They “don’t think about anybody” other than themselves when they make these decisions.  

Believe them. 

That’s why this year, we’re going to support leaders who do care, who do think about North Carolina when they’re making decisions that impact us. We’re going to support leaders who rein in corporate greed, who support tax credits for working families instead of massive corporations, who will protect the programs that help people afford health care and put food on the table. 

Americans deserve so much better than what they’re getting from their leaders right now. We will have better leadership soon, we just need to continue doing the work to make that a reality.