Political speeches are often worth skipping, not conveying much new information. But Donald Trump’s speech last week at the Economic Club of New York was quite newsworthy, in several ways.
His incomprehensible, word-salad response to a question about child care received quite a lot of attention, rightly; I think we can safely say that he has no policy on that issue.
More coherently, Trump made it clearer than ever that he sees 19th-century-style tariffs as the answer to many of our economic problems.
But he had a message beyond tariffs. He also promised to deliver a big reduction in energy prices, especially the price of gasoline — a promise that may well reappear in tonight’s debate. I’ll quote some of what he actually said in a little while, but first let’s get some background.
Prices at the pump have been on a roller coaster the past few years. Here’s the national average price of gasoline since 2017:
Prices plunged in early 2020, then recovered; they soared in 2022, then fell back. They’ve been sliding recently, with some analysts predicting the average may fall below $3 over the next few months.
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