By admin 
- President Donald Trump has repeatedly dismissed Americans’ economic pain and military casualties from the Iran war with comments critics call insensitive.
- Most recently, Trump said “I love the inflation” as it surged above 4%, driven by the war in Iran.
- He’s also said the increase in gas prices is “peanuts” and that he doesn’t think about Americans’ financial situation when negotiating with Iran.
On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump responded to Iran downing a US Army Apache helicopter during a ceasefire by telling the Wall Street Journal that it “wasn’t a big deal.” About 24 hours later, he responded to inflation surging above 4% for the first time in three years by saying, “I love the inflation.”
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The one-two punch of flippant comments epitomizes Trump’s increasingly tone-deaf approach to addressing Americans’ concerns about the Iran war and the economy.
Repeatedly in recent months, Trump has responded to Americans’ growing concerns not with empathy, but by pretending their pain didn’t exist — or that it was actually good.
And he’s now assembled a remarkable list of ham-fisted comments.
Below are some of the most prominent examples, ranked by how insensitive they were and how politically troubling they could be for Trump’s party ahead of November’s midterms.
9. His comments about troop deaths
Trump has often struggled to speak tactfully about the sacrifices of American troops, and that’s surely the case now that he’s personally sent them to war.
After the first three deaths in the Iran war were reported, Trump immediately seemed to insert the deaths into a cost-benefit analysis.
“We have three, but we expect casualties,” Trump told NBC News. “But in the end, it’s going to be a great deal for the world.”
In a later video, Trump seemed to ad-lib while talking about the deaths, saying, “That’s the way it is,” and wagering there would be more deaths.
Democrats quickly pilloried him for the quote.
8. Saying rising oil prices are kind of a good thing
Trump has occasionally suggested that rising oil prices are actually good because the US is producing more of it.
“The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” Trump said on social media back in March.
Of course, certain people will benefit. But the vast majority of Americans don’t work in the oil industry, and thus the rising prices are a burden.
7. His weird comments about dolls and pencils
Trump last year repeatedly suggested that Americans dealing with rising prices in part due to tariffs could simply buy their children fewer dolls and/or pencils.
“Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know,” he said in April 2025.
Trump later made a similar argument about pencils.
“You know, you can give up certain products,” he said. “You can give up pencils, because under the China policy, you know every child can get 37 pencils. They only need one or two.”
6. Telling rich people in Davos he was making them lots of money
Trump’s populist political movement is supposed to be about helping the working class and pushing back on the moneyed interests, the fat cats and the globalist crowd that gathers for an annual economic conference in Davos, Switzerland.
But there he was in Davos in January, amid significant economic pains back home, bragging about his policies were enriching those assembled.
“I don’t even ask anybody how you’re doing now,” Trump told a gathering of CEOs. “It’s like everybody is making so much money.”
He added that “we’ve given you a platform where you can really put your genius to work.”
Trump also regaled them with stories about people making frivolous purchases with their newfound wealth.
5. Downplaying Iranian strikes against US forces during the ceasefire
Believe it or not, the incident with an Apache helicopter wasn’t the only time Trump has shrugged off, rhetorically at least, military action with Iran during the supposed ceasefire.
After Iran targeted US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain and Kuwait’s airport last week, Trump called it “not a big deal” and dismissed it as a legitimate retaliatory strike.
(Trump has frequently downplayed potential Iranian ceasefire violations, apparently in hopes of keeping the truce going and cutting a deal, although the US attacked Iran on Tuesday and he’s vowed further attacks Wednesday.)
4. Gas price increases are “peanuts”
Last month, Trump dismissed the increase in gas prices as “peanuts.”
“This is peanuts,” Trump told reporters. “I appreciate everybody putting up with it for a little while. It won’t be much longer.”
A recent poll showed nearly two-thirds of Americans said the increase in gas prices had affected their households’ finances at least “somewhat.”
3. Affordability is a ‘hoax’ or a ‘scam’
Last year especially, Trump repeatedly pitched the concept of affordability as a “hoax” or a “scam.”
“It’s a con job,” Trump said at one point. “I think affordability is the greatest con job.”
It was often difficult to grasp Trump’s meaning, but he seemed to be suggesting Democrats were exaggerating the problem. Polls show Americans overwhelmingly believe affordability is a problem, though — and that Trump has neglected the issue.
Trump also at times suggested affordability was a concept that had just been created, or that he had never heard the term before. This despite him having campaigned on making things more affordable in 2024.
It paints a picture of a president not taking the issue seriously. And polling shows between two-thirds and three-quarters of Americans think Trump hasn’t.
2. ‘I love the inflation’
You can bet Trump’s new comment will get plenty of attention going into the 2026 midterm elections.
When asked Wednesday about the highest inflation in three years — inflation spurred by rising energy costs due to the Iran war — Trump shot back that the “the numbers were great.”
President Donald Trump said “I love the inflation,” in remarks from the Oval Office, brushing off a spike in inflation driven by his war in Iran, saying that “the numbers were great,” adding, “I love it,” of the new data that showed annual inflation hitting a three-year high.
“I love it,” he said of new data. “I love the inflation.”
Trump might argue he wasn’t saying that inflation itself is good. It more seemed that he was arguing the data was somehow good. He argued that inflation would shoot down once the war was over.
But it was a pretty nonsensical argument — one that created an overwhelmingly dismissive soundbite. He could argue inflation is temporary, but almost nobody would say 4.2% inflation is actually good or something they “love.”
1. ‘I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation’
This still ranks at the top, because of how blunt it was and how directly it speaks to Trump’s abandonment of his former populism.
Trump was asked last month how much Americans’ concerns about the economic toll of the Iran war were motivating his push for a peace deal.
He responded that they motivated him “not even a little bit.”
“The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran [is] they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”
One could argue that this is the right negotiating posture to have with Iran, at least when it comes to getting a deal — that telegraphing a lack of resolve hurts your leverage.
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But the way Trump said it was brutal.