President Trump told attendees at the McDonald’s Impact Summit on Monday that they are “so damn lucky” he won the 2024 presidential election, arguing the economy would have been a “catastrophe” under former Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Welfare was going up. Everything was going up. Government jobs were going up, real jobs were going down,” Trump said.
“So you would have had that catastrophe, and on top of that, instead of $20 trillion coming in, you would have had $10 trillion leaving our country. In other words, you would have had a catastrophe. You probably would have had a bankrupt country,” he continued.
“You are so damn lucky that I won that election, I’m telling you,” he added, receiving laughter and applause.
Trump’s speech at the summit, which included McDonald’s owners, operators and suppliers in the audience, comes as the president and GOP face growing backlash over their handling of the economy.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump promised voters he would bring down prices and reverse the record-breaking inflation surge seen during the Biden administration. But inflation has remained high throughout Trump’s second term, and the job market has fallen off rapidly from the major gains seen under former President Biden.
Annual inflation rose to 3 percent in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s consumer price index, the same rate as when Trump took office in January. Employment growth has also plunged to an average monthly gain of fewer than 30,000 new jobs, and major companies have announced plans to cut thousands of jobs before the end of the year.
Trump and his allies sought to highlight other aspects of the economy, such as the record-breaking tax revenue generated by his tariffs and planned corporate investments, to make the case for his economic record. But the major loses taken by Republican candidates in elections earlier this month prompted a shift in strategy for the GOP.
After initially dismissing concerns about affordability as a Democratic “con,” Trump announced several steps meant to bring down prices and signal concern about the state of the economy.
The president rolled back his own tariffs last week on dozens of food products, including beef, bananas, and coffee, amid pressure over food inflation. Trump also asked the Justice Department earlier this month to investigate the meatpacking industry, accusing them of raising prices through collusion.