Sweaty Mike Johnson Left Visibly SHAKEN from Reporter's Basic Question

Mike Johnson really needs to think of some better excuses, because this act, it's really getting old. The president was asked about whether Americans' financial concerns were motivating him to make a deal with Iran. His response was, I don't think about Americans' financial situations. When you're negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are Americans' financial concerns motivating you to make a deal? Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about Americans' financial situation, and I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That's all. That's the only thing that motivates me. Do you think that's the right message? Do you think the president should be considering the financial toll? I don't know the context in which he made that comment, but I can tell you the president thinks about Americans' financial situations. I talk to him on average twice a day, sometimes three or four times a day, and we talk about it constantly. He's laser-focused on trying to resolve the conflict in Iran, because if we get the Strait of Hormuz, when we get the Strait of Hormuz reopened, that will alleviate a lot of pressure with gas prices and other things in the economy. Now, we've done everything, the Republican Party, under President Trump's leadership, have done everything that we possibly can to reverse the maddening inflation of the Biden years that was at 40-year highs and all the gross misspending over the last several years to get the economy back humming again. So you heard it yourself, Maga Mike and the Republicans are doing everything they can to make your life better. How's that going as of now? We've got inflation at three-year highs, real wages falling, and prices are rising rapidly on groceries, on airfare, and of course on gasoline. Now, the energy spike, that's really ground zero for the hits of consumers. The estimates from Brown University are that the impact from higher gas and diesel, that's costing Americans $38 billion since the war started. The war in the Middle East is making the cost of living here in America worse. And a lot of people, they can't keep up because prices are going up faster than paychecks. Prices are now going up faster than paychecks, right? And that's the first time that we've seen that, where real wages, inflation adjusted wages, are falling for the first time since 2023. Inflation was heading in the right direction. And look at this, at the start of this year, just as the war began, inflation going almost straight up towards 4%. Now, core inflation, which excludes food and energy, that's looked at as a better sign of underlying inflation. That's what the Fed, that's what investors look at. That also moved in the wrong direction. Core inflation heating up to 2.8%. That's the highest level since last fall. Grocery prices up by 0.7% on the month. That's the most since August of 2022. And that may be a reflection of also the war, because we've seen diesel costs go up. So that's making it more expensive for farmers and to transport all the food to the stores. You know, even the newest MAGA-friendly network, CNN, couldn't ignore just how bleak many of these data points are, especially given conflicting reports from the administration and media about the true scope of the war in Iran. But don't worry. Trump is on the case. As soon as we get gas prices back under control, we alleviate that pain. I tell you, the president is laser focused on it. He spends a large part of every day working to resolve this. When he says America first, he doesn't mean America alone, obviously. He means that we put the interest of America first. And I'm going to tell you, that's not a selfish proposition. When we do that, it's good for our citizens. It's good for this country and every freedom-loving person around the world. So our prayers are with him, and he has a good visit with Xi in China. They come forward with some favorable policies and things that will help us out. And I believe he will, and we'll see how that develops. To their credit, this other reporter took Johnson to task on how the Trump administration is making all of our lives worse. Gas prices are up. Inflation's up. Americans having some financial hardships across the country. That being said, is right now the right time for Congress to be prioritizing a billion dollars for security apparatus in the White House, including $220 million for the East Wing Ballroom, given the fact that President Trump had said it would be paid for by private donations? Yeah, look, I think that's a gross misstatement of what's going on here. In the bill, and by the way, it's in draft form right now, as you know, the second reconciliation bill. Sadly, we have to fund immigration enforcement and border on our own as a Republican Party, because remember, Democrats want to give zero dollars to it. The Secret Service put in an urgent request for additional security measures. It's not for the ballroom. It's for security measures. Now, we don't know what the final bill is going to be. In one section of the bill, it addresses security measures. It's very specifically defined on what those security requests are from the Secret Service. And I will say this, for many of you that were in the ballroom just a few weeks ago and sat through and observed the third failed assassination attempt of a president just in a short number of years here, there's an urgent need for increased security measures. I mean, that is an objective fact. And it should be something that's bipartisan. The ballroom is totally privately funded. The president has dedicated like $400 million for that project. And by the way, it's going to be a donation to the country. You're aware the ballroom will be there long after he leaves, and he'll only get a few months of its use. So he's doing it for the country. But it's what's beneath the ballroom that is, in my view, far more important. And we've needed some of these security measures for a long time. And that's what this is all about. So there's a false narrative out there about it. I think the president has been abundantly clear. He is excited about building a ballroom with private funding, not taxpayer funding. But the Secret Service says that as we enhance the White House grounds and the modernization there, that obviously we have to think differently about security. We live in a very dangerous time, and there are new and increasing threats that we have never faced before. And so Congress has a role in funding that, and we'll have to see how it all works out. So let's just sit with that answer for a second, because the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the man third in line for the presidency, was just asked a direct, factual question about an economy that is on fire. His response was essentially that everything's great, the president is a genius, and the only problem is that the rest of us aren't paying close enough attention. But here is what is actually happening in the country. Mike Johnson says it's doing so well. The Ample Consumer Price Index is out. Inflation is now at 3.8 percent on the year. That is the highest level since May of 2023. Gasoline is up over 28 percent in 12 months. The national average is $4.50 a gallon, up from about $3.14 a year ago. Beef is up 14.8 percent. Airfare is 27.7 percent. Tomatoes are up nearly 40 percent. Coffee, 18 percent. Real wages, after you take inflation out, they dropped half a percent in a single month. Workers in this country are now earning less in real dollars than they were a year ago. And that is happening, by the way, because of a war, a war Donald Trump started without congressional authorization, a war that shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a war that has now blown up the energy markets for two and a half straight months. And the same speaker of the House who just told you everything is fine, did not lift a finger to stop any of it, not the war, none of it, did not call for a vote on the war powers, did not demand a single hearing on what is costing American families at the grocery store. He just gets up at the microphone, smiles and says the president is doing a tremendous job. So the next question I have is why on earth would anybody ever trust Mike Johnson on what is happening with that ballroom? Because while gas is at $4.50 a gallon, beef is up 15 percent, Donald Trump is using the east wing of the White House, part of the people's house that has stood for over 80 years as a personal construction site for a $400 million ballroom. They demolished it in October, no advance warning. The cost has already doubled from $200 million to $400 million, Trump said on multiple occasions on the record that not one taxpayer dollar would go into it, quote, I'm paying for it. The country's not, quote, free of charge, quote, zero taxpayer dollars. And now Senate Republicans, the same party Mike Johnson is leading the talking points for in the House, it quietly inserted $1 billion of taxpayer money into an immigration enforcement bill, $1 billion for, quote, security adjustments and upgrades inside the perimeter of the White House. Yeah, OK. Explicitly tied, though, to the east wing modernization project. That's a quote. That's the ballroom. They're not even hiding it anymore. The bill names it directly and is being passed off as a security expense after the correspondence dinner shooting, even though Washington Post ABC poll shows the American public still opposes the ballroom two to one, three to one among people who care most. Lindsey Graham has a separate bill, of course. It just hands $400 million in customs fees directly over to pay for it. Same Lindsey Graham, who, by the way, hosted a private fundraiser called the Trump-Graham Golf Classic at Trump's West Palm Beach golf course, paying the president of the United States personally while voting on the president's agenda. So when Mike Johnson stands at that podium and tells you the Republican Party is fighting for working families, just look at the receipts. The receipts say Republicans found $1.4 billion between the security bill and the Graham bill for a ballroom and a bunker for the president's parties. The receipts say Republicans have not found a single dollar to bring down the price of beef or gas or rent or a tomato. That's not a party that cares about your life. That is a party that has decided which house in this country it is fighting for, and it's not yours. Look at the California's governor's race right now. I mean, what a spectacle. Nearly all the Democrats, including a former House Democrat and a Biden cabinet secretary, proudly said yes when they were asked the simple question if they support providing health care to illegal aliens. We're supposed to believe this is a serious political party right now? I mean, Democrats are chomping at the bit to regain power and reopen our borders and allow violent criminal illegal aliens to continue to roam our streets. These are facts. This is not political talking points. This is what they are and what they're about, and we're not going to let them do that. The Speaker of the House just admitted on camera that his party views the people who put them in office as something to be managed. Not represented, managed. And the way you manage them, according to the Republican playbook, is you stand at a podium, you smile, you tell them everything is fine, and then you go back to your office and you write a billion-dollar check for a ballroom they'll never see the inside of. This is what the Republican Party in 2026 has actually become. They will not vote to lower the price of insulin, but they will find a billion dollars for a party room. They will not stop a war that is costing the average American household hundreds of dollars a month in higher prices, but they will write 400 million dollars in customs fees over to a private construction project at the residence of the man who started it. They demolished a wing of the White House, a building that belongs to the American people that has stood since Franklin Roosevelt, to build a venue big enough to hold an inauguration inside. Trump said that out loud. He actually said it. He said the ballroom would be large enough that future inaugurations could be held inside. Inside is private renovation, walled off from the public. He doesn't get it. Walled off from the protesters, walled off from the reporters, walled off from anyone the president does not personally invite inside. That is not the people's house anymore. That is a palace. And every time Mike Johnson opens his mouth and tells you the economy is great, the president is a genius, and the only thing wrong with America is that you are not paying enough attention, what he's really telling you is to look up. Look up at the chandelier. Look at the marble. Look at the gold. Do not look at your grocery receipt. Do not look at your gas pump. Don't you dare look at the war. Look at the palace. There's a word for a government that builds itself a palace while its people can't afford to eat. There's a word for a speaker who smiles at the podium, tells the people in the breadline that this is the best economy of all time. And it is not Republican. It is not conservative. And it's not American. It is what every regime and every history book did right before the people in it finally said, enough.