I wanted to do a quick update on the newsletter I wrote last month “A Thanksgiving Primer to Help You Deal With your Fox Loving Relatives.”

I had to wait until December 18 to get the updated CPI report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The agency delayed it eight days due to the government shutdown. It was also based on a partial gathering of data which is problematic for several reasons.

My one word of caution with this newsletter:

NO AMOUNT OF DATA OR EVIDENCE WILL CONVINCE A MAGA PERSON THAT THEY ARE WRONG!

If I could put lights around that that phrase I would.

Devotees of the glorious leader will only give up on their deranged wannabe dictator when they decide for themselves that he’s a fraud. Their love and devotion to him is similar to the admiration for a cult leader.

The only way they will see the light is if they give up on him based on their emotional attachment to him and his movement. There is hope.

If they realize, on their own, that Trump is not the savior they thought he was they MIGHT drop this movement all together. It just takes time and patience.

The best thing you can do is to remain lighthearted around them as they go off on their rants. I admit openly it is challenging to do this with relatives especially when they are spouting angry, bigoted or racist rhetoric.

Another tip I would offer is to constantly change the subject to something other than politics - this might not work. I have had to disengage and simply walk away countless times from loved ones and friends who insist on discussing politics when I’ve indicated it is inappropriate.

Data, charts, and primary sourced information are great for folks who have not yet succumbed to the madness of MAGA. It will also help you know that you aren’t losing your mind and the reality-based world has your back.

This will also help anyone in your life who doesn’t consider themselves political, but it is on the fence about Trump.

I’ve included graphs, tables and maps of basic information to help destroy many of Trump’s frequent lies.

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Food Prices

Grocery prices have increased across the board every month since Trump took office with a few exceptions. Food prices are normally volatile so it’s not unusual to see them vary a lot from month to month.

My source for all these prices is FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data). Each item has its own entry.

If you want to check out how FRED works here is the latest price for coffee. There is a gap that can be confusing due to the government shutdown, so I wanted to show everyone how to use FRED.

The reading for November is on the graph it just looks blank. I placed my cursor all the way to the right of the screen to get the number for November since there was no reading for October.

I’ve checked these prices since the first month of Trump’s presidency. More prices dropped last month or stayed the same since January but I suspect the data was thrown off a bit due to problems with the government shutdown.

Regardless Trump still performed miserably as 17 items out of 26 increased in price or stayed the same since the last full month of Biden’s presidency.

I count January 2025 for Trump since he made the absurd and impossible claim that he would get prices down on “day one,” of his presidency multiple times throughout his campaign.

Unemployment

A comparison of Biden’s last year in office with Trump’s first year so far.

My source for this chart was FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data). There is no data for October 2025 due to the government shutdown.

This Tuesday on the PBS News Hour David Wessel, a senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution expressed his concern about the latest jobs report.

“It suggests that the economy is weakening, that the labor market, which is where most of us earn our income, is slowing down. And we don’t know how much more lies ahead. But it is a very worrisome sign. But as my friend Jason Furman, the former white House Obama White House economist, said, by even by usual standards, there’s more uncertainty here and we’ll have to wait and see another month how bad things are.”

Trump frequently lied about his record with Black unemployment throughout his campaign. This is old news but you might hear someone in your family or social circle bring it up.

The Black unemployment rate did hit a record during the first Trump administration at 5.3% but Trump refused to accept reality that Biden blew past it in April 2023 when it hit 4.8%. The current rate for Black unemployment is 8.0%.

Inflation

One thing you might hear your Fox News loving relatives say,

“It’s the lowest rate of inflation since 2021.”

That’s a bit misleading as anyone could tell easily by looking at the chart that inflation was much lower in multiple months of Biden’s presidency and from March through May of the first year of Trump’s second term.

What they are referring to is core inflation which Investopedia describes as such:

Core inflation tracks how prices are rising across the economy, leaving out food and energy, since the prices of those items tend to swing unpredictably. It is commonly calculated using the consumer price index (CPI) and the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index.

Most folks on the right who are making this claim about inflation are leaving out the word ‘core’ so they sound like they don’t know what they are talking about.

The latest reading of core inflation was 2.6% which would be the lowest since November 2021 but a lot of economists and experts don’t think the latest BLS report is accurate.

The table below is directly from the CPI report that was released by the BLS on December 18, 2025. Most of the data from October 2025 and November 2025 were not collected.

This was also included on the official release by BLS

BLS did not collect survey data for October 2025 due to a lapse in appropriations. BLS was unable to retroactively collect these data. For a few indexes, BLS uses non-survey data sources instead of survey data to make the index calculations. BLS was able to retroactively acquire most of the non-survey data for October. CPI data collection resumed on November 14, 2025.

Residential Electricity Rates

This is an updated map showing the how much residential electricity rates have increased from September 2024 - September 2025. I got these data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Residential electricity rates have increased in 46 states plus the District of Columbia. Only four states saw a decease in their electricity rates from September 2024 - September 2025.

States with decreases:

• Rhode Island -1.4%

• Hawaii -3%

• Connecticut -7.8%

• Nevada -14.8%

Top five states (including District of Columbia) with the highest increases:

• District of Columbia +31.3%

• New Jersey +21.1%

• Illinois +20.6%

• Indiana +16.9%

• Pennsylvania +15.1%

This is something that Trump is going to have a really hard time explaining to folks as people know how much their utility bills are costing them every month.

Trump also repeatedly boasted during his campaign for president that he would ‘cut electricity rates in half’ within the first year of his administration.

Most of Trump’s ‘Drill Baby Drill’ Promises are Nonsense

I’m not an expert on the oil and gas industry but I’ve learned enough to know that most of what Trump says about the U.S. oil and gas industry is complete and utter nonsense.

Trump has also claimed that the United States has ‘the most liquid gold under our feet than any other country.”

Trump might be basing this on an estimate made by a Norwegian oil company in 2016. The estimate was based on newer methods of extracting oil (hydraulic fracking). Most crude oil is extracted in the United States using hydraulic fracking technology not conventional drilling.

The fracking industry is sometimes referred to as the "Shale Revolution.”

Hydraulic fracking is a more expensive process than drilling and in some cases, it might cost a petroleum company more money to get crude oil out of the ground than it’s worth.

According to World Population Review the U.S. has the 9th largest untapped oil reserves in the world.

According to multiple sources Venezuela and Saudi Arabia both have significantly more untapped crude oil than the United States. The U.S. ranks anywhere from #8 to #11 depending on the source as oil reserves are measured differently by various agencies.

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Trump Acts Like the U.S. is One Big Company

The U.S. government does not own oil extracted in the United States including crude oil extracted on publicly owned land. The U.S. treasury receives a royalty on oil extracted on public land. Biden increased it from 12.5% to 16.67%. He was the first president to raise the royalty since 1920.

Trump rolled this royalty back to 12.5% as part of his One Big Beautiful Bill.

Whatever profits are leftover after oil companies pay royalties and land leases go back to the corporation not the U.S. treasury. Most oil is extracted from privately owned land although production on publicly owned land (off shore included) has increased in recent years. From the Energy Information Administration:

Most oil in the U.S. is extracted from privately held land. In those cases, any royalties are worked out between the landowner and the petroleum company.

Trump has repeatedly made wild claims that the United States will pay down the national debt from revenues from oil and gas.

The Department of the Interior reported $16.5 billion for fiscal year 2024 from energy production on federal and Tribal onshore lands, and federal offshore areas.

The national debt is $38 trillion. If every dime of revenue from oil and gas was used to pay down the debt it would account for 0.043% of the total debt.

The oil and gas industry is also subsidized by U.S. tax payers.

Trump Ignores the influence of OPEC+

The U.S. accounts for around 22% of crude oil production in the world, which is the highest for any single country on record. This trend started during the end of the Biden administration despite Trump’s many claims that Biden had destroyed the oil and gas industry.

OPEC+ countries combine produce over twice as much as the United States. OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) was formed in 1960 by Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela but has since expanded to 13 members.

OPEC+ has even more power and influence than the original OPEC as according to EIA (Energy Information Administration):

In 2016, largely in response to dramatically falling oil prices driven by significant increases in U.S. shale oil output, OPEC signed an agreement with 10 other oil-producing countries to create what is now known as OPEC+. Among these 10 countries was the world’s third-largest oil producer in 2022, Russia, which produced 13% of the world total (10.3 million barrels per day [b/d]).

Due to its size OPEC+ can influence the global price of crude oil far more than the United States.

OPEC countries have attempted to drive the price of crude oil down to a point that it bankrupts the U.S. fracking (shale) industry. OPEC+ countries tried and failed to do this in 2014.

There is an ongoing debate if OPEC+ is attempting to do it again.

The oil and gas industry is extremely complicated. I’m barely scratching the surface here, but Trump has overly simplified the industry and exaggerated the benefits of recorded breaking oil extraction for U.S. consumers.

The United States will likely ALWAYS import crude oil.

The oil extracted from the United States is not the same type of oil that often gets refined and turned into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel and other types of energy. Many refineries built in the United States were designed for oil extracted from other countries.

The reason for this goes back to fracking. The type of oil extracted using fracking methods in the United States is a different quality than the oil extracted using traditional drilling methods.

Most of the oil we could get out of the ground using drilling methods is long gone.

From The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM):

• Many refineries need heavier crude oil to maximize flexibility of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel production. Today, most crude oil produced in the United States is light, including much of what’s produced in the Permian and Bakken. Light crudes are not good replacements for the heavy crude oil we get from Canada and Mexico.

• Re-tooling refineries to process solely U.S. crude oil (light crude) would cost billions — a risky investment that would take decades to permit, construct and eventually pay off. We lack the infrastructure (like pipelines) needed to cost effectively supply U.S crude oil and refined products to every region. Even if the economics of re-tooling our facilities worked, it can take close to a decade to permit and build pipelines in the United States.

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Tariffs are Paid for by U.S. importers and U.S. Companies

Trump either doesn’t understand how tariffs work or blatantly lies to the American public about his trade policies.

Tariffs placed on imports are a tax paid for by U.S. importers and U.S. companies who usually pass on their increased costs to U.S. consumers.

Even experts on Fox News have challenged the president on this. In July Charles Gasparino, a journalist who has covered Wall Street for decades and frequent Fox News contributor, challenged Brian Kilmeade about tariffs on Fox & Friends.

“Every penny we get from them is being passed to the US consumer . . .So some companies and some companies will eat it for an award for its sub so far. But remember companies don’t report to the president. They report to shareholders. And they have a fiduciary responsibility for profit margins. And at some point and and that point is coming, I mean, you can see it there are they are having price increases, uncertain goods. I mean, there’s no doubt. And, you know, this this deal has just been cut. So I would just say this is good. It’s good to have a trade deal. It’s better than. And by the way, 15% is manageable. So they’re going to blow up the global system. But, let’s be real clear here. You know tariffs cost. They’re a tax. That tax often gets passed on to consumers right. Unless they want to make it here. And that’s also a goal.”

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Trump has Trashed His Own Trade Deal - USMCA

On December 3, 2025, during a press conference in the Oval Office, a reporter asked Trump about the USMCA (United States Mexico Canada Agreement) trade agreement. The journalist was off screen and not identified.

Journalist: Can you also talk about USMCA and what you’re thinking about renegotiating that with the automakers?

Trump: Well, you know, that’s just an ongoing thing. It expires in about a year, and we’ll either let it expire, will maybe work out another deal with Mexico and Canada. But, look, Mexico and Canada have taken advantage of the United States like just about every other country. You know, fairness. It’s not them. I’m not blaming them. But every country, because we had stupid people running our country.

The USMCA is set to expire in 2036. The next mandatory joint review is scheduled for July 2026 to assess the agreement and decide on renewal.

During the campaign trail Trump bragged about the USMCA as it was his signature trade deal.

On February 17, 2024 Trump said this at a rally in Waterford Township, Michigan.

“I ended the disaster known as NAFTA, the worst trade deal ever made, and replace it with a brand new Usmca. The best trade deal ever made, they say,” said Trump.

Tariff Revenue will Replace Income Taxes

Americans won’t pay income taxes due to tariff revenue

• This is an absolutely absurd claim as income tax is one of the main sources of revenue for the U.S.

• In 2024

  • Tariffs - 1.4% of total revenue

  • Income taxes - 49.3%

  • Payroll taxes - 34.7%

• From Politifact

  • To replace what the federal income tax currently covers, tariff revenues would need to grow to nearly half of all federal revenue, or about $2.4 trillion.

  • But Trump’s increased tariffs haven’t netted anything near that amount, and they aren’t projected to exceed $260 billion a year as far as the eye can see.

Some of Trump’s Most Common Lies

The U.S. has secured $18 trillion dollars in committed investments

• Trump changes this number daily.

• The White House website only includes $9.6 trillion.

• The commitments are promises and mean very little.

• The money would be used for private investment it would not go directly to the U.S. treasury.

• The total GDP for the U.S. in 2024 was $29.1 trillion

Trump inherited the highest inflation in history

• This lie changed last week when he said it was the highest in history when he started his second term.

• Inflation was much higher in the late 1970s and early 80s than the brief spike under Joe Biden.

• I created the following graph beloved based of yearly rates of inflation (CPI) from Investopedia. The website presents the data in a table if you want to see a specific year.

Gasoline Prices are under $1.99 in some states

• Gasoline prices change daily but as 12/20/25 the latest rates on AAA the lowest price for gasoline is $2.33.

• The only recorded prices under $2.00 were part of a promotion or membership.

• The national average price for a gallon of gasoline is $2.86 last year at this same time it was $3.05.

I’ve stopped inflation or I’ve ended Inflation

• The last CPI report showed 2.7% for the rate of inflation although many economists are skeptical of the rate due to a partial reporting of data from the BLS.

• Regardless Trump didn’t stop or end inflation. It was 3.0% at the start of his presidency and was 3.0% in September.

I will get prescription drug prices down 200%, 300%. 400%, 500%. 600%. 700%. 800%, 900%

• A price cannot go below 100%.

• If a $100 drug was reduced in price by 300% the drug companies would pay people $200 to take their drugs

• This is complete nonsense - Trump complained that it was not being reported by the press.

The One Big Beautiful Bill includes ‘NO TAX on Social Security’

• Trump was blocked from eliminating tax on Social Security

• Some seniors will benefit from a temporary $6,000 deduction for taxpayers

  • The biggest beneficiaries are seniors making between about $80,000 and $130,000

  • The new deduction is scheduled to expire in 2028.

25 million migrants entered the United States during the Biden administration

• This is a completely fabricated number

• During the campaign trail from 2023 - 2024 Trump started saying 15 million migrants entered the country during the Biden administration. He slowly increased that number over time to 25 million. He often says 20 million. Vice President J.D. Vance recently said 30 million.

• According to the Pew Research Center the total number of undocumented immigrants reached a record 14 million in 2023. That would include undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for decades.

The U.S. has given $350 billion to Ukraine

• Trump made this false claim often while he was running for president in 2024.

• According reporting by CNN the U.S. has spent $94 billion on Ukraine since the end of June 2025 with future commitments to spend $93 billion more.

I’ve ended eight wars

• This is an exaggeration Trump has repeated for months.

  • Egypt and Ethiopia wasn’t a war it was a dispute. The two countries had a dispute over a dam project involving the Nile River.

  • Serbia and Kosovo were also not at war. Trump may have prevented further conflict between the two countries.

  • Congo and Rwanda - this conflict is ongoing. The leaders of both countries just signed another peace deal brokered by Trump but fighting resumed within hours.

  • Israel and Hamas - fighting has continued on both sides of this conflict. Hamas did not disarm as promised. Israel has continued to strike sites in Gaza. Trump helped secure the return of Israeli hostages along with the release of Palestinian prisoners. Both sides have exchanged the remains of hostages and prisoners since the fragile peace deal was signed in October.

  • India and Pakistan - India has disputed Trump’s claims that U.S. trade incentives led to an end to a brief conflict between the two countries.

  • Cambodia and Thailand - another border dispute, not a war, that has not ended. Fighting resumed on December 8th. Quickly after fighting resumed Trump said he got both sides to agree to some form of ceasefire. On December 18th, just two days ago, Thailand carried out airstrikes against Cambodia.

Military recruitment increased due to his election

• Recruitment was already increasing in the last year of the Biden administration due to changes to prep courses and increased bonuses for recruiters made by each branch of the military.

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This is the last Decoding Fox News newsletter for 2025. I will have an additional updated holiday primer with fact checking for Christmas/winter holidays since the Thanksgiving edition was so incredibly popular.

I will also have a “Best of 2025” episode featuring special guest comedian Pete Dominick where we go over some of the most outrageous Fox News clips of the year.

Happy Holidays! Thank you for supporting Decoding Fox News. I will return with my usual weekly schedule of newsletters/podcasts right after the New Year.

Last week on Fox News it became more apparent that the MAGA Titanic is gliding straight into an iceberg and the only passengers with lifeboats aren’t even on the ship - they are hovering above it in climate-controlled spacecraft fueled by the cuts to U.S. foreign aid meant for starving children.

Meanwhile their glorious leader tells them that the impending disaster is a Democratic hoax designed by his enemies to make him and the greatest political movement in the history of this country look bad.

By the end of the month nearly 24 million Americans will see sharp rises in their healthcare premiums, while the cost groceries, electricity, insurance, and housing continue to rise.

About 7-8 million Americans enrolled in the SAVE student loan income repayment plan will also face higher monthly payments. Credit card balances have increased along with unemployment while the wannabe king promises everything will work out in two weeks, the next quarter or sometime next year.

As Trump’s poll numbers plummeted and Democrats won elections all over the country Fox News continued to churn out the propaganda and spin.

Shows I covered on Fox News last week:

• Fox & Friends

• The Five

• Jesse Watters Primetime

• Several Trump press conferences

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE Change your messaging Trump!

On Wednesday on Fox & Friends Brian Kilmeade attempted to soften Trump’s terrible messaging on the affordability crisis

“If, you know, President Trump and most everybody in the country does. What he’s saying is blaming me for the affordability is the hoax. He wasn’t saying things aren’t affordable to the American people. Mr.. Mrs. Johnson, don’t feel as though the grocery prices are high and electricity is a challenge. He’s saying, really? You’re blaming me? After you had your rescue package, we didn’t need the Inflation Reduction Act. It didn’t work. The infrastructure deal that was jammed down our throats, which was a green agenda, which we didn’t need. So he’s saying, now you’re blaming me for the bill you ran up, but he got the job. He’s got it for ten months. And this is what people are saying, right?”

The day before at a rally in Pennsylvania President Trump repeatedly called the affordability crisis a hoax even claiming that prices were going down.

Later on in the same program Ainsley Earhardt read directly from the editorial board of the NY Post, a publication owned by the same company that owns Fox News.

“So there is an article in the New York Post, and it talks about how Trump can deliver going forward before the midterms. And he says the president can and should offer genuine assurances, but must admit that the frustration is really painful. Here’s here’s another clip. Listen to the people, President Trump, they really do feel economic pain. It says he should explain that he did inherit the mess, which he does. And it says he needs to be careful. Slamming Democrats talk of affordability is as a con job is really twisted to make it seem like he doesn’t think people are suffering. We realize that he means that Dems are responsible for the nation’s current woes. They can’t credibly claim to be the party of strong economic growth, which is the only way out of this box. The president can and should offer genuine assurances, but must admit the frustration is is painfully real. The president can and should explain that he inherited a mess and point to how his policies are starting to turn things around. But when voters feel pain, they don’t take well to being told that they’re just wrong.”

Two Weeks…Next Quarter….Sometime Next Year

On Tuesday on Fox & Friends the cast reassured its audience that relief from higher prices was just around the corner.

“Scott Bessent said on Sunday that he believes by the spring of 2026, the economy really be humming,” said Brian Kilmeade.

Ainsley Earhardt. reminded Fox viewers that Trump warned of some temporary pain caused by his tariff policies.

“He did say when I implement these tariffs, which he did in his first year, then some prices are going to go up. You’re going to have to feel a little bit of pain, but we’re going to get so much money back from other countries because of this. . . . J.D. Vance even has predicted that next year, 2026, is going to be a banner year for the economy.”

“So give everybody certainty and a lot of those businesses a direction for 2026,” said Kilmeade.

That evening on Jesse Watters Primetime Charles Payne, of Fox Business, also predicted a booming economy in 2026.

“2026 is going to be huge. We’ve got all the big beautiful bill stuff kicking in.”

The next day on The Five Brian Kilmeade repeated the same talking point.

“Maybe it’s unrealistic to say he’s going to get it down right away, but I sense he prime the pump at 2025 to win big in 2026.”

Jesse Watters was also enthusiastic about the new year.

“Next year is going to be insane . . . And next year they’re projecting to be the greatest economic year since the 80s.”

Later that night on Jesse Watters Primetime:

“Jerome (Powell) just came out and he said that if we keep all the tariffs the same, don’t do anything. Inflation stops at first quarter next year. And then it’s smooth sailing,” said Watters.

On Friday Brian Kilmeade painted President Trump as a victim.

“So, he did put on Truth Social a little bit of his frustration. When will I get credit for having created with no inflation, perhaps the greatest economy in the history. When will people understand what is happening? When will polls reflect the greatness of America at this point in time? Roughly, he’s got 36% approval on the economy. And I think that the answer to that question will be in the second half of the year, first quarter, second quarter, as Scott Bessent went over.”

That evening on Jesse Watters Primetime, Joe Concha, the Fox News contributor who will say absolutely anything to keep himself employed also predicted a prosperous 2026 for the American economy.

“So look, 2026 is looking very good. If you’re Donald Trump and Republicans in general, because that’s when no tax on tips comes into play. That’s when the tax cuts that Trump passed in the big beautiful bill come into play. And everything seems to be going in the right direction economically.”

According to the Yale Budget Lab only around 2.5% of American workers are part of the workforce that rely on tips for part of their income. Most of the tax cuts Concha mentioned benefit the highest income Americans.

From the Center for American Progress

The ACA Healthcare Subsidy Disaster

Most likely the House and Senate will not reach an agreement before the enhanced subsidies for the ACA expire at the end of the month. Nearly 24 million Americans will see sharp increases in their monthly premiums purchased through ACA plans all over the country.

According to KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation):

Nearly six in ten Marketplace enrollees (57%) live in congressional districts represented by a Republican. Generally, enrollment in ACA Marketplace coverage by congressional district is largest in the South. At least 10% of the population is enrolled in ACA Marketplace plans throughout all congressional districts in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina, along with almost all in Texas and Utah.

The corporate brass at Fox News might have finally realized that they have an impending disaster coming as Brian Kilmeade included some alarming statistics about U.S. healthcare system when he spoke to the Senate majority whip Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) on Thursday on Fox & Friends.

“So just so people know, if these premiums go away, you’re going to see some of these things. Medical inflation will outpace as we roll through all goods in 2000 to 2024 medical care will go up 121%, and all goods and services will go up 86%.

If subsidies expire, low income people making $22,000 or more, will have a $0, $66 a month for middle income. If those people make $35,000 and up, it’ll be about $218 a month. More older middle income adults know their rates will go up about 508%. So because of the Covid subsidies, people are used to paying a certain price”

Embrace the Delusion

On Friday on The Five Jesse Watters insisted everything was looking good for the president.

“Democrats keep insisting the walls are finally closing in on President Trump. But judging by last night, nobody told him. The president putting on his finest tux and Melania looked dazzling in her gown . . . so Trump’s clearly at the top of his game as he drives the news cycle every single day. But the Democrats, cranky Cajun, thinks his presidency is over.”

Charlie Hurt also thought everything was going great for the glorious leader.

“But it’s, but it’s it’s like, Yeah, I think we’ll look back at this and it will become kind of a funny little thing to remember all the times they told us that it’s over with. And then you could, like, list all of his accomplishments after this person said, it’s all over. We got him right where we want him.”

Rosanna Scotto, a host with Fox 5 New York, who was a guest co-host, repeated some of Trump’s favorite talking points.

“Donald Trump says we have the hottest country right now, so he didn’t get the memo that everybody else is talking about.”

Jessica Tarlov offered some specific examples that should be warning signs for Republicans and Trump.

“If he were at the top of his game, the Indiana state Republicans would have approved his maps. He threatened them publicly, privately calling people, getting bomb threats, going after individuals. And they would have succumbed to him. But they didn’t. They voted against . . .a change in approval amongst those who strongly approve of him. So of 2024 voters for Trump March 66% strongly approve. That’s down to 50%. A 16% decrease in the first year of his administration. People are saying, we put you into office to lower our prices, to fix the economy, and you’re building ballrooms. You’re telling us we can only have two pencils,” said Tarlov.

Last week Republican lawmakers in Indiana rejected a new congressional district map promoted by the president that would have favored the Republican Party in the 2026 elections.

The proposed map was designed to break up and combine urban areas with rural communities to help Republicans win all nine congressional districts in a state where they already control seven.

Jessica Tarlov - A Blue Wave is Coming

Last Tuesday President Trump held a rally in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania to talk about what his administration is doing to help Americans with the current affordability crisis.

Jessica Tarlov, the liberal voice on The Five, shared her thoughts on the president’s messaging.

“The midterm ads will be full of Donald Trump from last night saying, you can give up pencils. You don’t need that many. You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter, 2 or 3 is nice. So we’re doing things right. Prices are going down. My favorite word is tariff. I just helped our farmers out because they’re starting to do really well. The tariffs are making them rich. There is not a farmer that you could find to do an interview that is saying, I have been made rich because of Donald Trump’s tariff policy. And last night Democrats were also busy in Florida and in Georgia. So there’s going to be a new mayor of Miami. Eileen Higgins, a Democrat, hasn’t won there in decades.

I know before you say it, Brian, there was an independent who was in there in the early 2000’s. Still, Kamala Harris won by one point. Miami County, she won by 19 points. We flipped another seat in Georgia. So far in 2025, Dems have flipped 25 GOP held seats. The GOP have flipped zero. That is the story of what’s going on here. So you can say people speak Trump. They love the weave, I get it, I never loved it, but I understand that people like it. What they like more is money in their pockets. And he’s not delivering on that.”

Stories Fox News Ignored

Every week I compare the hours I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS News Hour. The following list are stories that PBS covered that Fox News did not. This list has been truncated due to space. Source - The PBS News Hour transcripts.

• President Trump said that a break in the ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia is over. But Thailand’s prime minister told reporters that his country was not the aggressor in the latest conflict and that a cease-fire with Cambodia was still out of reach. The conflict earlier in the week resulted in at least 20 people dead with hundreds of thousands displaced. (PBS News Hour)

• China’s trade surplus has surged past the $1 trillion mark for the first time ever. That’s according to new data released last week, and it comes despite a continued drop in shipments to the U.S. amid ongoing trade tensions between the two countries. Instead, China is selling more goods to places like Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa. (PBS News Hour)

• Honduras is seeking the arrest of the country’s former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was pardoned by President Trump and released from a U.S. prison. The attorney general of Honduras is asking authorities there and Interpol to execute a 2023 arrest warrant for Hernandez over fraud and money laundering charges. He was sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for helping move tons of cocaine to the U.S. Mr. Trump announced his plan to pardon Hernandez just days before national elections in Honduras, claiming that he had been treated unfairly by prosecutors. (PBS News Hour)

• The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit against the Trump admin. over its plans to build a ballroom. The Trump administration has argued that a new building is long overdue. The White House is expected to submit plans to a federal planning commission before the end of the year, about three months after construction began. (PBS News Hour)

• In Gaza, residents are clearing up from Winter Storm Byron, which has flooded camps where Palestinians have been sheltering in already dire conditions. Palestinian officials have reported more than 2,500 distress calls because of the storm. Aid groups say Israel has not met its agreement under a cease-fire with Hamas to allow 600 trucks of aid into Gaza each day. Israel disputes this claim, saying it has allowed in truckloads of tents, blankets and warm clothing. (PBS News Hour)

• Israel’s cabinet voted to extend legal status to 19 previously illegal settlements last week, formalizing more control of land in the West Bank. Attacks by Jewish settlers against Palestinian communities there have increased sharply since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks in Israel. PBS produced a comprehensive segment about the violence which included families who have lost loved ones and land to the settlers along with Israelis who risk their own lives and safety to try to protect Palestinians. PBS also spoke to Christians in the area who have also been the subject of attacks. Some Christians in the region have fled the country because of the aggression. (PBS News Hour)

By the Numbers

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