CNBC’s Sara Eisen clashed with her fellow co-hosts during a guest appearance on “The View” Thursday, defending President Donald Trump’s economic policies amid the conflict in Iran.
Twenty days into the Trump administration’s military operation in Iran, Americans are lamenting rising prices, particularly at the pump. Vice President JD Vance has argued that this acute moment of economic strain is a mere “blip” in the current economy, but co-hosts of “The View” were divided on their expectations.
“If you have filled up a tank of gas you are paying 80 to 90 cents more per gallon than before this war began. That’s a sharp increase. It’s painful. You feel it, and it will impact your spending everywhere else. It’s an economic hit,” Eisen said, acknowledging the economic pain felt by many Americans.
“The good news, there are many reasons to believe that it is short-lived and that it is temporary,” Eisen added.
IRAN WAR JEOPARDIZES TRUMP ECONOMIC BOOM BEFORE KEY MIDTERM ELECTIONS
Eisen went on to argue the spike will probably be temporary, as oil prices should fall if tensions ease or if Iran’s ability to disrupt key shipping routes like the Strait of Hormuz is reduced. She added that markets are already signaling lower oil prices later this year.
“That’s a lot of ‘ifs,’” co-host Whoopi Goldberg replied.
“It’s a lot of ‘ifs!’” co-host Sunny Hostin agreed, going on to blast the war as a use of money that would be better spent on Americans at home.
Co-host Sara Haines objected to rhetoric downplaying the current economic strain as a mere blip, saying, “Many people voted Donald Trump in because they were promised that gas, eggs, everything was going down.”
This never materialized, she said, “but now it’s so far up, gas specifically, remember, people get to work by transportation. Whether it’s a bus, a train, these all run on diesel.”
Haines went on to refer to a video they showed of a TSA officer lamenting that she is having to ration gasoline just to commute to work, and denounced the administration’s rhetoric, saying “You know, the lack of understanding of what real people go through every day is the part that continues to kind of rub salt in the wound as we – I watch them speak.”
“They’re not being empathetic, sure,” Eisen said. “But if you look at the facts, you know, the economy is generally in pretty good shape and I know it doesn’t feel that way for everybody, and we do have this phenomenon which we’ve talked about where, you know, the rich have gotten richer –”
“Much richer,” Hostin interjected.
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Behar asked Eisen if she would forgive everything because “the economy is in good shape?”
“No, no, I don’t forgive anything. I’m just saying, sometimes when it comes to President Trump, you know, you have to separate the character from the policies,” Eisen said, going on to praise the Trump accounts policy for children born in the US.
Haines objected, saying, “The problem is those policies won’t benefit anyone in the near term and people are really hurting. I believe a government’s first priority is to protect its citizens, but that’s not just at borders, that’s also their paychecks.”
