President Donald Trump was asked by reporters outside the White House on Tuesday what he believed was the No. 1 issue for American voters heading into the midterm elections.
His initial response was brief: “I don’t know exactly.”
What did Trump say?
Trump returned to Washington, D.C. after an event in Maryland on Tuesday. Wearing a red “USA” hat, he spoke with reporters outside the White House when a reporter asked him what he saw as the top issue for American voters.
Trump replied, “Well, I don’t know exactly.”
He then pointed to what he described as improvements in the US economy.
“When you look at the American voters, we’re doing better. We’re taking in trillions of dollars of investment. We have more jobs. You know, more people are working in America today than at any time in history. The poverty rate is the best it’s ever been in terms of individual. That includes African American, Asian American, Hispanic American. Poverty rate is the single best poverty rate, meaning lowest poverty rate we’ve ever had. The individual rate on individual people are making more money than they’ve ever made. And if you take a look around, we have more jobs right now in the United States of America than at any time in the history of our country,” he said.
Trump then turned and walked away from the reporters.
Social media users react
The clip of Trump’s response quickly spread on social media, prompting outrage.
One user wrote on X, “People who have never lived a difficult life, people who have never experienced some short or poverty or financial hardship will never be able to relate to the average American…but they can relate to the elite.”
Another added, “Oh yeah, he’s really caring about Americans right now, folks. If Biden gave that response, they’d be demanding he be removed from office as soon as he finished saying it.”
A third person commented, “In Trump’s defense, it’s hard to stay in touch with everyday issues when you’re busy counting $2.7 billion.”
Another user wrote, “Is he living in an alternate universe or just plain nuts!”