Media Must Cover Trump’s Gas Price Admission Honestly

At a Georgia rally Saturday, Trump said it plainly: “We’re making a freaking fortune.” He was talking about high gas prices — and he said it knowing exactly how it sounds. His own staff told him not to say it. He said it anyway: “I don’t give a damn.” This is a president who has netted $2.2 billion off the presidency, whose administration started a war in the Middle East that sent gas prices soaring, and who is now bragging about the windfall — a week before a midterm election in which gas prices are the top economic concern for millions of voters.

This is not a gaffe. Trump previewed the headline himself: “President Trump is bragging about all the money they’re making while people are suffering at the pump.” He then said he didn’t care and said it anyway. When a president tells you exactly who he is and exactly what he thinks of the people he governs, that is not a slip. It is a confession.

We call on the media to cover Trump’s gas price remarks not as a quirky moment from a campaign rally, but as the clearest window yet into his governing philosophy: the suffering of working Americans is acceptable — even desirable — as long as the right people are making a fortune. Bernie Sanders called it truthful. David Axelrod called it a bad closing message. The media should call it what it is: a president who just told the public, on tape, that he doesn’t give a damn about them. The public deserves reporting that takes him at his word.