Newsweek's newsletter The 1600 argues that the last major economic report before the midterm elections shows conditions working against President Donald Trump and his party. It says inflation rose to 3.7% from 3% on Inauguration Day 2025, real wage gains turned negative at -0.7% from 1%, and real wages have shrunk for a sixth straight month. Regular gasoline at $4.33 a gallon, diesel at $6.18 and a 30-year mortgage rate of 7.45% are all higher than when Trump took office, and core inflation rose to 2.6%, above August's 2.4%. The newsletter blames much of this on the Iran war and the energy crisis it sparked, and says the national debt has grown to $40 trillion from $35.5 trillion while GDP growth slowed to 2.3% from 3%.
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