When the U.S. Labor Department reported that inflation slowed significantly in February, The Washington Post spun the good news about what actually happened into an article blaming President Donald Trump for the awful things that might happen in the future.
“Inflation eased in February,” The Post’s headline began, before adding “but trade war threatens higher prices.”
The fearmongering continues in both the sub-headline (“Tariffs have fueled worries of another recession, which President Donald Trump has declined to rule out”) and opening paragraph:
“Inflation eased more than expected in February, but not enough to assuage fears that a new round of tariffs taking hold Wednesday on steel and aluminum imports would escalate a trade war, threatening higher prices in the months to come.”
The Post then reports that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.8% over the past 12 months, but waits nine paragraphs to mention the fact that prices rose just 0.2% from January – less than half January’s 0.5% seasonally-adjusted increase from December under President Joe Biden.
Nearly half of the paragraphs in the story about prices in February warn about Trump’s “tariffs” (9 of 21).
When good economic news is reported, it’s dismissed by caveats, such as “unlikely to be repeated,” “unexpected” and “signals that households are gloomier about their future finances, which bodes poorly for future spending.” “Calm before the storm,” reads one section header.
“Trump inherited a solid economy and labor market, but recent data and corporate announcements have presented a gloomy picture going forward,” The Post claims.
In fact, however, Trump inherited an economy from Biden that was much worse by many measures than the one Biden inherited from Trump four years earlier. As CNS News has reported, under Biden, consumer prices rose 21.5%, gas prices spiked 35%, mortgage rates jumped 151%, and personal savings rates fell an average of 63%,
Other legacy media outlets also appear reluctant to credit Trump for the good news about inflation during his first full month back in the White House.
While a CNN headline about last month’s consumer price news reads “US inflation cooled in February, but Trump’s tariff plans and trade war loom,” the article itself actually focuses on the improvement in the inflation rate and slower price increases for various products.
MSNBC, on the other hand, appears content to ignore the good news entirely, as neither MSNBC.com, its MSNBC Top Stories page, nor its X.com account featured even a single story about February’s improved inflation news, as of publication time.