President Donald Trump spent the afternoon in the Cincinnati area spinning lies. He rambled about his failed plan to lower drug prices at a pharmaceutical plant in Ohio and subjected Kentuckians to yet another delusional rally filled with falsehoods, weird distractions, and bizarre digressions about his ruinously expensive and incompetent war with Iran. This visit was just another desperate effort by Trump to hide his record of failure: a blue-collar bust, slow job growth, stagnant wages, layoffs, high utility bills, rising prices, soaring health care costs, an out-of-control immigration crackdown that’s terrorizing communities across the country, and now a massively unpopular foreign war – the list goes on and on. Less than a third of Americans say they are better off than a year ago and Trump’s approval rating in Ohio, a state he won by double-digits in 2024, is deep in the red. The truth is, Trump and his GOP allies have spent the past year screwing working families, raising prices to benefit themselves and their powerful friends.
Here are the key facts about what’s actually happening in Trump’s terrible economy:
FACT: Donald Trump’s War On Iran Is An Unpopular Quagmire, Costing Billions, Killing Americans, And Driving Gas Prices Sky High
- Trump talked at length about his Iran “excursion” in Ohio and Kentucky like it’s a fun walk in the park, but the truth is Americans are dying, energy prices are soaring, and there’s no end in sight.
- The Trump administration charged into war with no clear plan, leading with utter incompetence.
- As many as 150 U.S. troops have been wounded so far, dozens of them with severe injuries. Seven service members have been killed.
- A U.S. targeting mistake killed 175 people at an elementary school, mostly children.
- Operational incompetence led to the loss of three fighter jets.
- The U.S. was low on interceptors to counter Iranian drone strikes and missile attacks even before the conflict began. Iran’s response caught the military off guard, and they are now effectively exploiting U.S. military weaknesses by targeting key air defense and radar systems.
- Trump’s disastrous war in the Middle East costs billions of dollars a day – enough to cover health care, school lunches, and more for millions of Americans.
- Trump’s war with Iran, which has led to the closure of a key critical oil and gas shipping corridor, went ahead despite the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve being depleted. He now has no plan to reopen the corridor or protect shipping in the region.
- Trump claimed today that “oil prices are already coming down,” but the truth is they’re still climbing. Thanks to Trump’s war in Iran, gas prices in Ohio are up to $3.43 a gallon – 66.5¢ higher than they were just four weeks ago, a nearly 25% increase in gas prices. Cincinnati has seen some of the largest gas price increases in the country. Rising oil and gas prices will also cause utility bills to spike, since 44 percent of American electricity is generated from natural gas and oil products.
- And it’s not just gas: Food costs could spike within months as fertilizer prices go through the roof and transportation costs rise with high diesel prices. The cost of plastic goods could spike within months as tons of plastic-based consumer products absorb high petrochemical prices. Aluminum costs could also spike, as the U.S. imports 20% of its aluminum from the Middle East.
- A majority (54%) of Americans disapprove of Trump’s war with Iran, and 52% say the U.S. should not have taken military action.
FACT: The “TrumpRx” Plan Does Nothing To Make Drugs Cheaper For Most Americans And We’re Definitely Not “Paying The Lowest Prices In The World” For Prescription Drugs
- Trump claimed “we’re paying the lowest prices in the world” for prescription drugs, but the reality is there is no evidence that Trump’s deals so far have led to broad decreases in drug prices.
- Trump says he’s slashing drug prices by “700 percent” but the reality is that his “TrumpRx” plan does nothing to make drugs cheaper for most Americans and his Big Ugly Bill is costing seniors and taxpayers billions by delaying Medicare negotiations on popular and expensive cancer treatments.
- For many families, especially those with health insurance, purchasing medications through TrumpRx is actually more expensive than other alternatives. TrumpRx doesn’t include cheaper generic versions of many popular drugs, and it doesn’t allow patients to count their purchases toward their insurance deductibles.
- The Inflation Reduction Act, which passed without a single Republican vote, allowed Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors and is now saving seniors and taxpayers billions. Trump opposed the bill and actively fought its implementation. His Big, Ugly Bill is costing seniors and taxpayers billions by delaying Medicare from negotiating lower prices on many of the most popular and expensive cancer treatments.
- Trump entertained drug company CEOs at his Mar-a-Lago resort, solicited millions in donations, then spent the past year handsomely rewarding Big Pharma for their support.
FACT: Job Growth Has Has Been Negative Since Trump’s Liberation Day And Trump’s Promised Blue Collar Boom Is A Total Bust
- Trump claimed that jobs and economic growth are exploding in his speeches today, but the truth is layoffs hit 41,000 in Ohio in 2025 with more than 3,500 more losing jobs in Kentucky, with huge employers like Ultium Cells (OH), First Brands Group, Ford (KY), and more laying off thousands of workers. Louisville-based UPS cut 48,000 last year as well.
- The U.S. economy lost 92,000 jobs in February. Since January 2025, average monthly job growth is a dismal 15,000, and total job growth since Trump’s much-hyped “Liberation Day” is negative.
- Ohio saw nearly 41,000 job losses in 2025 – the 8th-highest in the country – and experienced a 70% increase in layoffs compared to 2024. The Cincinnati area alone has lost hundreds of jobs since Trump took office.
- Donald Trump promised a manufacturing and blue-collar jobs boom, but month after month, we’re losing blue-collar jobs. Over 108,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in Trump’s first year in office and there’s no end in sight with the manufacturing economy “going in reverse” according to the Wall Street Journal.
- Layoff announcements topped 1.1 million in 2025 – the most since the last time Trump was in office during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The native-born unemployment rate has actually risen since Trump took office, and overall unemployment has risen to a four-year high of 4.6%.
- Wage growth has shrunk since Trump took office. People are spending longer looking for jobs and millions of Americans are involuntarily working part-time or scrambling to string together multiple gigs just to survive.
FACT: Trump Promised To Cut Your Energy Bill In Half, But Costs For Ohioans and Kentuckyians Are Soaring
- Trump bragged today about his historic American energy boom and cutting the costs of energy, but he promised voters in 2024 that he would cut your energy bill in half and since he took office the exact opposite has happened.
- Overall energy costs are rising more than twice as fast as inflation and one in six U.S. households is behind on utility bills, owing billions to electric and gas utilities.
- Residential electric bills are up 17% nationwide, rising more than seven times faster than inflation overall, and retail gas prices are already up 3% this year.
- Three in four (73%) Americans are concerned about their electric and gas utility bills rising and 80% of Americans say they feel powerless over how much they are charged for utilities.
- Trump has threatened nearly $500 million in Ohio energy investments, cancelling, delaying, and forcing layoffs at 10 energy-related projects, leading to around 3,500 jobs threatened or lost.
- Ohio and Kentucky utility providers are hiking rates:
- Monthly natural gas bills are up 84% since 2024 in Ohio. In Cincinnati alone, Duke Energy Gas hiked its default supply rate by 122%. PJM is hiking electricity rates for Ohio customers as well this year.
- Kentucky’s primarily natural gas supplier hiked rates 11% last month, and Kentucky Power customers are facing a nearly 6% rate hike this year, sharply reduced from a proposed 14% hike after the Kentucky Public Service Commission faced significant pushback.
FACT: Health Care Costs Are Going Up For Americans Under Trump, And Millions Will Lose Their Care All Together
- Trump talked at length about his fake health care plan that is better and cheaper than the “Unaffordable Care Act,” but all his policies have done is drive premiums up for millions of Americans and throw millions more off their health care altogether.
- Over 24 million Americans are seeing their health care premiums skyrocket an average of 21% this year. Premiums are increasing an average of:
- The Trump-GOP Big, Ugly Bill kicks nearly 15 million people off their health insurance and cuts $1 trillion from Medicaid. More than 500,000 people across the state are seeing their coverage costs at least double on average this year after the Trump-GOP budget ripped away critical tax credits that make ACA coverage affordable.
- Hundreds of thousands of Americans are dropping coverage after Republicans ended the health care tax credits to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations – and it’s only going to get worse.
- Across the country, over 750 health care facilities, including hospitals and clinics, are at risk of closing or reducing services, forcing more Americans to travel farther for maternity care and emergency rooms, and face longer wait times and higher costs. Nearly 30 Ohio hospitals and clinics are closing, have already announced cuts, or are at risk of closure in the wake of the Trump-GOP bill, and Ohio hospitals are estimated to over a billion dollars a year due to Medicaid cuts alone.
FACT: Trump Said Today That The Price Of Almost Everything Is Coming Down, But Prices Are Still Soaring
- Trump claims today that he’s driving down core inflation and that prices are coming down, but anyone can see that prices on nearly everything are still soaring.
- Just this morning the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that consumer prices continued to rise at a persistently high annual rate of 2.4% in February, while wholesale prices rose at a much faster-than-expected pace in January despite the president’s repeated claims that inflation is “over” now.
- A year into Trump’s term grocery prices are still rising. The overall cost of groceries in December was up 2.4% from a year ago. Meat, poultry, fish, and eggs all went up in price over the last 12 months, rising 3.9%. Coffee prices rose 20% in 2025, and beef and veal prices reached record highs in 2025, rising nearly 15%.
- Trump said today that he’s bringing down the cost of housing, but his policies actually promote a “nation of renters” and have done nothing to make homeownership more affordable. Housing costs are at an all-time high and the Trump tariffs are doing nothing but driving up new home costs by tens of thousands of dollars. The Center for American Progress estimates that tariff-induced higher building costs will lead to 450,000 fewer homes being built over the next five years, exacerbating the housing supply shortage.
FACT: Donald Trump’s “Favorite Word” – Tariffs Are Devastating The Economy And Driving Up Costs For American Families
- Trump barely mentioned his favorite word today at his events in Kentucky and Ohio even as his administration today launched yet another round of trade “investigations” that will likely lead to even more tariffs.
- Americans pay almost all of the cost of Trump’s tariffs – and his unhinged trade policies have cost the average American household nearly $1,200 since he took office. In the first year of Trump’s second term, Ohioans paid an average of $1,532 more in goods and services.
- Prices have increased and American businesses are footing the bill for Trump’s tariffs.
- 60% of Ohio residents oppose Trump’s tariffs.
- Ohio and Kentucky importers paid the some of the highest tariff bills in 2025, with the cost of Trump’s tariffs running around $6.5 billion in Ohio and $4 billion in Kentucky
- A survey of Ohio manufacturing executives found that one-third reported tariffs were impacting their sales. Of those, a majority reported declining sales, averaging losses of -16%.
FACT: It’s Not “Fake News”: Americans Hate Trump’s Cruel Immigration Policies
- Trump barely mentioned his cruel immigration policies and his White House has advised Republicans to stop talking about “mass deportation,” because Americans hate what they’ve seen in the last year.
- Trump’s approval on immigration sits at a record low. The latest Reuters/IPSOS poll found a majority of Americans say Trump’s crackdown on immigration has gone too far. Just 39% of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing on immigration, down from 50% last February, and 58% say ICE agents have gone too far.
- A majority of Ohioans (51%) oppose Trump’s ICE raids, and a stronger majority opposes ICE agents wearing masks and driving in unmarked cars.
- A majority of Americans also disapprove of how immigration enforcement officers are handling their jobs, with a majority saying ICE’s tactics are “too forceful.”
- Since Trump took office, seven people have been shot and killed by federal immigration officers, including unarmed U.S. citizens. Dozens of others have been shot or seriously injured by “less lethal” munitions.
- There have been at least 13 instances of immigration agents firing at or into civilian vehicles since July, and more than 40 cases of immigration agents using banned chokeholds and other moves that can cut off breathing.
- More than a third of the roughly 220,000 people arrested by ICE officers in the first nine months of the Trump administration had no criminal histories. In the highest profile ICE operations in Los Angeles; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; and across Massachusetts, more than half of those arrested had no criminal record.
FACT: The SAVE America Act Will Block Tens Of Millions of Americans From Voting
- Trump today pushed hard for passage of the SAVE America Act, a bill that would block tens of millions of eligible Americans from voting.
- Trump and the GOP’s SAVE Act will block millions of Americans from voting and disenfranchise many U.S. citizens – especially married women, Americans living abroad, and the approximately 21 million Americans who lack access to their citizenship documents like birth certificates and passports.
FACT: Americans Hate What Trump Has Done To The Economy
- Trump claims that the economy is “roaring back” but Americans know the truth.
- Trump’s approval rating in Ohio, a state he won by double digits in 2024, is deep in the red at around negative 15 percentage points and he’s just barely breaking even in deep red Kentucky.
- A majority (55%) of Ohioans believe the economy has gotten worse in the last year.
- Since Trump took office, consumer sentiment has plunged by 26 percent and now sits near all-time lows, while the president’s approval rating on the economy has fallen deeply underwater.
- Just 35% of Americans approve of Trump’s performance on the economy according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll.
- 37% of Americans approve of how Trump is handling the economy, according to the latest AP-NORC poll.
- Just 36% of Americans approve of President Trump’s handling of the economy, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.
- 57% of Americans blame the current state of the U.S. economy on President Trump, according to the most recent Quinnipiac poll.
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