CNN host Anderson Cooper delivered a detailed fact-check of claims made by former President Donald Trump regarding the economy, particularly inflation and prices, stating that "none of what you heard him say there was true." Cooper highlighted discrepancies between Trump's statements at recent rallies and the latest economic data.
During his rallies, Trump asserted that prices were falling and inflation was decreasing, telling voters, "All your prices have been tumbling down" and "Prices are coming down very fast. ... Oil is coming down. Inflation’s down." He also claimed that any perception of high prices was due to the "fake news" and that he was actively bringing costs down.
Cooper contrasted these claims with the latest Consumer Price Index report, which indicated that inflation had surged higher than expected in September, rising to 3.7% compared to the previous year. He also noted that oil prices were $106 a barrel on the day of his broadcast, contradicting Trump's assertion that oil prices were decreasing.
Trump has been urging voters to "pretend" he is on the ballot in the upcoming midterm elections, a move that Cooper suggested was an attempt to make the elections about himself despite what he described as "disastrous approval ratings" and a nationwide affordability crisis. Cooper also presented a clip of Trump claiming at an Arizona rally that the nation was in a "golden age" and doing better than ever, despite opposition from "radical left lunatics."
Cooper fact-checked this claim as well, citing a "Poll of Polls" indicating that only 33% of voters in recent CNN polling believed Trump was doing a good job. He also pointed to a Reuters poll suggesting that even Republican voters felt Trump was "not doing enough to address their problems."
The segment also touched upon Trump's recent social media activity, including the posting of an AI-generated video depicting him wrestling and taming a tiger, which followed a video of a man being mauled by a tiger. Cooper noted that this action had caused an uproar in the U.K. and that American voters seemed more concerned with pressing economic issues than such content.