2026年5月7日 美国东部时间下午12:38 / CNN
撰稿：
艾伦·布莱克
唐纳德·特朗普 个人理财 投资
美国国家经济委员会主任凯文·哈塞特于1月12日在白宫外接受媒体采访。
斯特凡尼·雷诺兹/彭博社/盖蒂图片社
特朗普政府是全球亿万富豪集中度最高的群体之一。
而这一点往往暴露无遗。
近几个月来，公众对经济的负面看法日益扩散，政府 repeatedly 发表的言论往好了说就是考虑不周，往坏了说则是完全脱离实际。而且目前没有任何迹象表明他们会调整方向。
从共和党转投无党派的密歇根前众议员贾斯汀·阿姆什周三曾断言：“现在这届政府简直就是在嘲讽‘让美国再次伟大’的支持者。”
他这番话是针对白宫经济顾问凯文·哈塞特当天吹捧美国信用卡支出增长的言论做出的回应。
“事实上，昨天我邀请了五大银行之一的负责人到我的办公室，一起分析信用卡数据。正如财政部长斯科特·贝森特所说，信用卡支出正大幅飙升，”哈塞特在接受福克斯商业频道采访时表示，“人们不仅在汽油上花了更多钱，在其他所有方面的支出也都增加了。”
哈塞特和贝森特都并非政府中的亿万富豪，他当时的论点是消费者支出强劲，这表明经济状况健康。但这番话也完全可以被解读为物价上涨、美国人正在举债度日的反映——阿姆什和众多特朗普批评者很快就指出了这一点。
“特朗普政府如今居然在庆祝美国人在汽油上花更多钱、在信用卡上刷更多钱，”加利福尼亚州州长加文·纽瑟姆的办公室发言称，“他们简直就是在吹嘘民众正承受压榨。”
特朗普总统周一在白宫小企业峰会上也发表了类似言论。
“多亏了这些促增长政策，我们的经济正在强劲复苏，工厂建设也大幅增长，”他说，“消费者信心也大幅提升。”
但这两项指标都没有“大幅增长”，甚至根本没有增长。事实上，特朗普任内的工厂建设增速在前总统乔·拜登任内大幅增长后反而出现了下滑。数据显示，消费者信心指数已达到二战以来的最低点。
“强劲复苏”的说法也几乎没有美国人会认同；上个月公布的一项民调显示，仅有6%的受访者认为经济“非常强劲”。
特朗普一直以来都暴露着自己亿万富豪的生活方式。例如上个月，他就表示自己不知道“街角便利店”是什么概念。
“什么是街角便利店？我从没听过这个词，”他在拉斯维加斯的一场经济活动中说道，还补充道，“我从没听过有人这么形容一家小店。到底是谁写的这个说法，麻烦告诉我一下？”
就在前一天，贝森特还援引强劲的支出数据称，美国人内心深处其实对经济感觉良好——不管他们嘴上怎么说。
“听着，他们打心底里觉得不错，”他说，“我不确定他们在回答民调人员问题的时候到底在想什么。”
这番言论无疑有 condescending（ condescending 这里译为“ condescending 译为“居高临下、轻视”）之嫌，毕竟经常有民众认为经济状况相当糟糕。
这已经不是这位财长第一次发表令人费解的言论了。今年1月，他曾表示政府不希望拟议的禁止机构投资者购买单户住宅的禁令无意间伤害到“夫妻店”投资者。
这里的“夫妻店”投资者指的是……拥有十几套房产的人。
“可能是你父母为了退休生活，买了五套、十套甚至十二套房子，”贝森特在接受福克斯商业频道主持人玛丽亚·巴蒂罗莫采访时表示，“所以我们不想把夫妻店挤出去，我们只是想把其他人都排除在外。”
就在同一周，特朗普前往瑞士达沃斯，向全球精英吹嘘自己让他们变得有多富有。
“我甚至都不用问大家现在过得怎么样，”特朗普在一场CEO云集的聚会上说道，“每个人都赚得盆满钵满。”
这位总统还聊起，在他的第一任期内，经济形势好到一位有钱的朋友买了一架飞机却根本用不上。需要强调的是，这些精英正是特朗普的“让美国再次伟大”运动经常嘲讽的对象。
这一事件淋漓尽致地体现了特朗普政府经常出现的那种漠视民众感受的做派。他依然热衷于把自己的名字印在各种事物上，计划在华盛顿特区建造一座巨型拱门和宴会厅——周四他还在社交媒体上自豪地展示了一座自己的金色雕像——尽管绝大多数美国人都认为他忽视了民众最关心的生活成本上涨问题。民调显示，这种漠视民众感受的做派对特朗普来说是个问题。
而这只是这场持续已久的闹剧里最新的几起事件。在特朗普前往达沃斯之前，还发生过好几起类似事件。
其中包括农业部长布鲁克·罗林斯谈到可以通过后院养鸡省钱，以及制作“模拟”餐食，声称只要花3美元就能买到一顿包含“一份西兰花”的餐食；特朗普谈到美国人可以通过少给孩子买洋娃娃来应对他的关税政策导致的物价上涨；还有亿万富豪商务部长霍华德·卢特尼克坚称他的母亲不会因为没拿到社会保障支票而抱怨。
仿佛内部没有人提醒过这些言论有脱离实际的风险。对政府来说，似乎更重要的是这些言论呼应了特朗普偏好的叙事：事实上，一切都很美好。
这对富裕美国人来说或许确实如此。但这一信息似乎没能说服其他美国人，甚至可能适得其反。毕竟近几个月来，民众对经济的看法只会越来越差。
The Trump team still can’t figure out how to talk about the economy
2026-05-07 12:38 PM ET / CNN
Analysis by
Aaron Blake
Donald Trump Personal finance Investing
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, speaks to the media outside the White House on January 12.
Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The Trump administration accounts for one of the highest concentrations of billionaires in the world.
And often, it shows.
As negative economic perceptions have proliferated in recent months, the administration has repeatedly made comments that were ill-advised at best and gobsmackingly out of touch at worst. And there’s no sign of a course correction.
The Republican-turned-independent former congressman Justin Amash of Michigan wagered Wednesday: “It’s like this administration is now just trolling MAGA.”
He was responding to White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett on Wednesday touting Americans’ increasing credit card spending.
“In fact, I had the head of one of the big five banks in my office yesterday going through the credit card data, and just as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, credit card spending is through the roof,” Hassett told Fox Business Network. “They’re spending more on gasoline, but they’re spending more on everything else, too.”
Hassett, who like Bessent is not among the administration’s billionaires, was arguing that consumer spending is strong, which suggests a healthy economy. But it could certainly be read as a reflection of rising prices and Americans going into debt, too — which Amash and many Trump critics quickly cited.
“The Trump Administration is now CELEBRATING Americans paying more for gas and putting more on their credit cards,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said. “They’re literally bragging about people getting squeezed.”
President Donald Trump offered some similar comments Monday at a White House small business summit.
“And thanks to these pro-growth policies, our economy is roaring and factory construction is way up,” he said. “Consumer confidence is way up.”
Neither measure is “way up” or even “up.” In fact, factory construction is down under Trump after increasing greatly under former President Joe Biden. And the data shows measures of consumer confidence hitting their lowest points in the post-World War II era.
“Roaring” is also a claim that precious few Americans would agree with; just 6% rated the economy as “very strong” in polling released last month.
Trump has consistently betrayed his billionaire lifestyle. Last month, for example, he signaled that he was unfamiliar with the concept of a “corner store.”
“What is a corner store? I’ve never heard that term,” he said in Las Vegas at an economic event, adding: “I’ve never heard it described a corner store. Who the hell wrote that, please?”
A day earlier, Bessent cited strong spending numbers to submit that Americans actually felt good about the economy, deep down — no matter what they said.
“Well, look, in their heart of hearts, they feel good,” he said. “I’m not sure what they’re telling the survey people.”
That certainly risked condescending to Americans who routinely rate the economy as quite poor.
It was hardly the first head-scratching comment from the Treasury secretary. In January, he said the administration didn’t want its proposed ban on institutional investors buying single-family homes to inadvertently hurt “mom and pop” investors.
“Mom and pop” investors who … owned up to a dozen homes, that is.
“Someone, maybe your parents for their retirement,” Bessent told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, “bought five, 10, 12 homes. So, we don’t want to push the mom and pops out. We just want to push everyone else out.”
That same week, Trump traveled to Davos, Switzerland, and proceeded to brag to the world’s elite about how much richer he was making them.
“I don’t even ask anybody how you’re doing now,” Trump told a gathering of CEOs. “It’s like everybody is making so much money.”
The president also riffed on how, during his first term, things were so good that a wealthy friend bought an airplane he didn’t even use. Just to underscore, these are the kinds of elites that Trump’s MAGA movement often derides.
The episode epitomized the kind of tone deafness we’ve often seen from Trump. He remains focused on putting his name on things and building a massive arch and ballroom in Washington, DC — he also proudly displayed a gold statue of himself on social media Thursday — even as Americans overwhelmingly think he’s neglected their major cost-of-living concerns. Polls suggest this tone-deafness is a problem for Trump.
And these are just the most recent episodes in this long-running saga. There were several other incidents before Trump spoke in Davos.
That includes Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins talking about saving money with backyard chickens and running “simulations” to produce $3 meals that included a “piece of broccoli”; Trump talking about how Americans could respond to rising prices due to his tariffs by buying children fewer dolls; and billionaire Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick assuring that his mother wouldn’t complain about missing a Social Security check.
It’s as if there’s nobody internally flagging that these kinds of comments risk sounding out of touch. What seems to matter more to the administration is that they echo Trump’s preferred framing that things are, in fact, great.
Which might be true for wealthy Americans. But that message hasn’t seemed to convince the rest of America — and could potentially backfire. Views of the economy have only worsened in recent months, after all.
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