Fox News anchor Bret Baier has delivered a brutal reality check on Donald Trump’s economy as the GOP heads into the midterms.
Baier began the final segment of Special Report on Wednesday by summing up the midterms in one word.
“Costs,” he told viewers.
“That’s what this election has been about. If you look at the polls: higher costs,” he added.
Baier, the network’s chief political anchor, then turned to September’s inflation numbers. The Consumer Price Index, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday, showed prices climbed 3.7 percent over the past year, with gasoline up 34.2 percent and fuel oil a jaw-dropping 74.2 percent.
Baier corrected the president’s inflation numbers on Wednesday’s Special Report.
“The president earlier said that inflation was at 1.7 percent before the Iran war,” a stone-faced Baier said.
“It was actually closer to 2.4, but it’s at 3.7 now,” Baier, 56, said, citing September’s inflation numbers.
Trump made the 1.7 percent claim to reporters in May, but inflation had ranged from 2.4 to 2.7 percent in the months before the war, The New York Times reported.
Baier then pointed out the public’s disapproval on the issue. “That leads to this next poll that we have tonight about the president’s performance on inflation, and you see the difference there, from January and from March of last year,” he said.
Citing a new Fox News survey, just 22 percent of voters approve of the president’s performance on inflation and a staggering 77 percent disapprove.
That’s a freefall from 35 percent approval in January and 40 percent in March 2025, according to the Oct. 9-12 survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 points.
During a panel conversation after his monologue, Wall Street Journal White House reporter Meridith McGraw told Baier that Trump sees his rallies as a way to energize his base. But it comes with a problem
“People are really frustrated with how the White House has handled issues like inflation, and they are at this moment where they are trying to convince the American people that how they feel about the economy is different than what’s really happening,” McGraw said.
“For a lot of Americans, as reflected in the poll, they aren’t buying it.”
The congressional ballot looked just as bleak for the GOP. Another Fox poll gave Democrats a 54-to-45 percent lead among registered voters. Among people sure to show up, the margin shrank to 6 points, 52 to 46.
“It’s clearly in the Democrats’ corner,” Baier said.
October’s inflation numbers are due Nov. 10, a week after Election Day.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
