Trump touts booming economy at Montana rally, but supporters feel the pinch

KALISPELL, Mont. — On a day when the U.S. inflation rate was shown to have climbed 3.7% over the past year, President Donald Trump said at a rally in Montana on Wednesday, “We have very little inflation.”

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Trump touted a booming economy as he campaigned for Republican candidates on the final leg of a Western campaign swing, three weeks before the midterm elections.

Poverty is down and incomes are up, he told the crowd. More than $22 trillion is flowing into the country and with that record-setting level of investment, “they’re building plants all over Montana, and they’re building plants all over …”

“Everyone, we’re all having a good time,” he said.

Yet the economic resurgence he described isn’t the reality that many people say they are living.

In interviews before Trump appeared onstage, some of the supporters who came to see him said they’re feeling squeezed by grocery, housing and fuel costs.

Moneen Ahlquist, an 84-year-old homemaker who lives in Missoula, said that she is careful to combine errands in one trip so that she can keep her car in the garage and save on gas.

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“We shop at grocery stores where we can pump our gas and get a few cents off,” she said.

Megan Gurhlke, 44, who works on a dairy farm, said that three of her four family members work full time and yet, “We can’t afford stuff because the prices are so bad.”

“I represent the majority of our country,” she said. “We barely make ends meet, but we push to do it.”

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If there’s encouraging news for Trump in the face of such sentiments, it’s that his supporters don’t believe he’s at fault. Some echoed Trump’s contention that former President Joe Biden is to blame for high prices. Others said that they’re prepared to be patient and wait for Trump’s policies to fully kick in and make life more affordable.

“Right now, they [prices] are getting worse,” said Gary Hanson, 67, a hardware store owner in Kalispell. “It’s going to take a long time to turn everything around and that’s what Trump is looking at.”

As she stood in line to see the president, Jennifer Piperakis, 53, mentioned that filling her truck with diesel fuel costs her $200.

“Gas prices are outrageous,” she said. Still, she said, “I love President Trump. I love what he’s doing for veterans. He’s not about himself. He’s about trying to help. My husband is a veteran. Biden didn’t do anything for him.”

Elections often hinge on the economy. Polling suggests that voters’ unhappiness with economic conditions could cost the Republicans their slim congressional majority.

Trump’s message as he campaigns across the country is that people aren’t hurting; they’re thriving. In his speech Wednesday, he cited stock market gains that are boosting retirement savings. He nodded to high fuel costs but predicted that they’ll drop once the Iran war ends.

Defending the tariffs he’s imposed on foreign countries, he said that they’ve produced considerable wealth.

“We’re richer now,” he said. “We’re making more money now there than we ever — and we have more jobs than ever before. Remember that.”

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As for inflation, he said “we don’t have inflation.”