{"id":883030,"date":"2026-10-15T09:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T09:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/883030\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T09:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T09:56:13","slug":"trump-touts-booming-economy-at-montana-rally-but-supporters-feel-the-pinch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/883030\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump touts booming economy at Montana rally, but supporters feel the pinch"},"content":{"rendered":"

KALISPELL, Mont. \u2014 On a day when the U.S. inflation rate was shown to have climbed 3.7%<\/a> over the past year, President Donald Trump said at a rally in Montana on Wednesday, \u201cWe have very little inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump touted a booming economy as he campaigned for Republican candidates on the final leg of a Western campaign swing, three weeks before the midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Poverty is down and incomes are up, he told the crowd. More than $22 trillion <\/a>is flowing into the country and with that record-setting level of investment, \u201cthey\u2019re building plants all over Montana, and they\u2019re building plants all over \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone, we\u2019re all having a good time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Yet the economic resurgence he described isn\u2019t the reality that many people say they are living. <\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople arrive before Trump at a campaign rally at Majestic Valley Arena, in Kalispell, Mont., Wednesday.Ross D. Franklin \/ AP<\/p>\n

In interviews before Trump appeared onstage, some of the supporters who came to see him said they\u2019re feeling squeezed by grocery, housing and fuel costs.<\/p>\n

Moneen Ahlquist, an 84-year-old homemaker who lives in Missoula, said that she is careful to combine errands in one trip so that she can keep her car in the garage and save on gas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shop at grocery stores where we can pump our gas and get a few cents off,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Megan Gurhlke, 44, who works on a dairy farm, said that three of her four family members work full time and yet, \u201cWe can\u2019t afford stuff because the prices are so bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI represent the majority of our country,\u201d she said. \u201cWe barely make ends meet, but we push to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s encouraging news for Trump in the face of such sentiments, it\u2019s that his supporters don\u2019t believe he\u2019s at fault. Some echoed Trump\u2019s contention that former President Joe Biden is to blame for high prices. Others said that they\u2019re prepared to be patient and wait for Trump\u2019s policies to fully kick in and make life more affordable.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, they [prices] are getting worse,\u201d said Gary Hanson, 67, a hardware store owner in Kalispell. \u201cIt\u2019s going to take a long time to turn everything around and that\u2019s what Trump is looking at.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she stood in line to see the president, Jennifer Piperakis, 53, mentioned that filling her truck with diesel fuel costs her $200. <\/p>\n

\u201cGas prices are outrageous,\u201d she said. Still, she said, \u201cI love President Trump. I love what he\u2019s doing for veterans. He\u2019s not about himself. He\u2019s about trying to help. My husband is a veteran. Biden didn\u2019t do anything for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elections often hinge on the economy. Polling suggests<\/a> that voters\u2019 unhappiness with economic conditions could cost the Republicans their slim congressional majority. <\/p>\n

\"Rep.Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., speaks before Trump at a campaign rally at Majestic Valley Arena, in Kalispell, Mont., Wednesday.Ross D. Franklin \/ AP<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s message as he campaigns across the country is that people aren\u2019t hurting; they\u2019re thriving. In his speech Wednesday, he cited stock market gains that are boosting retirement savings. He nodded to high fuel costs but predicted that they\u2019ll drop once the Iran war ends. <\/p>\n

Defending the tariffs he\u2019s imposed on foreign countries, he said that they\u2019ve produced considerable wealth. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re richer now,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re making more money now there than we ever \u2014 and we have more jobs than ever before. Remember that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for inflation, he said \u201cwe don\u2019t have inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KALISPELL, Mont. \u2014 On a day when the U.S. inflation rate was shown to have climbed 3.7% over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-883030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}