The White House on Friday did not recognize falling levels of consumer confidence — even when asked directly — pushing a rosy picture of the economy despite continued volatility in the stock and bond markets.
Asked to explain during Friday’s press briefing why American consumer sentiment has dropped, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not engage directly with the question.
“I think there is a great optimism in this economy,” Leavitt said. “A lot of reason for people to feel optimistic.”
President Donald Trump’s approval rating for his handling of the economy has dropped six percentage points in the last two weeks; 55% of Americans disapprove of his handling of prices and inflation, a recent YouGov poll found.
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Consumer sentiment has also plunged 11 percentage points since March, according to the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers. That drop was across age, income, education, geographic region and political affiliation, the preliminary results of the April survey found.
“Consumers report multiple warning signs that raise the risk of recession: expectations for business conditions, personal finances, incomes, inflation, and labor markets all continued to deteriorate this month,” Surveys of Consumers’ director, Joanne Hsu, wrote.
Leavitt struck a different tone Friday, advertising “excellent economic news” in the briefing, citing that inflation fell to 2.4% in March.
The White House is also leaning heavily into Trump’s willingness to negotiate deals over tariffs, an about-face from the administration’s internal messaging strategy from just a week ago.
“Past presidents just willingly accepted the failed status quo on trade that ripped off our workers and our companies, but that’s not who this president is,” Leavitt said Friday. “He creates his own leverage and negotiates deals better than anyone else who has sat in the Oval Office before him, and that process is currently underway.”
Trump’s announcement of blanket tariffs — including massive increases on levies on Chinese imports — spooked Wall Street this week, leading to wild fluctuations in the stock and bond markets. In short order, Trump on Wednesday offered a 90-day pause for many tariffs.
Leavitt said the president hopes “good deals” would be made before the period is over.
“We will cut those deals as soon as we possibly can, country by country, tailor-made deals for each and every country,” she said.
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Em Luetkemeyer is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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