Republican presidential hopeful Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida says former President Donald Trump’s fingerprints are all of the inflation hitting Americans’ wallets.
Mr. DeSantis mentioned the financial system was roaring earlier than Mr. Trump, the GOP front-runner within the 2024 race, began heeding the recommendation of nationwide well being officers — together with Dr. Anthony Fauci, then director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — by embracing lockdown and monetary stimulus insurance policies in response to the COVID-19 international pandemic.
“The inflation that we’re dealing with today, the roots are really with those Trump-Fauci lockdowns in March of 2020,” Mr. DeSantis mentioned Friday on KCCI’s “Coffee with the Candidate” in Iowa.
Mr. DeSantis is making an attempt to sluggish Mr. Trump’s momentum forward of the Iowa caucuses, which kick off the Republican nomination contests. Mr. DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley are is operating a distant second behind Mr. Trump.
Mr. DeSantis mentioned the inflation that has gripped the nation got here out of the Federal Reserve printing “all this money” to prop up the pandemic financial system and Congress borrowing and spending trillions of {dollars}, together with on Trump’s watch, to pay for it.
Mr. DeSantis mentioned he was way more keen to push again in opposition to lockdown insurance policies as governor of Florida, and the state’s financial system benefited consequently.
“I think our record on the economy is second to none,” he mentioned.
Mr. DeSantis mentioned if he’s elected president he’ll pursue an agenda that can enhance the nationwide financial system.
“We’re going to have total energy independence,” he mentioned. “We’re going to lower people’s gas prices. We’re going to stop Congress from spending so much money.
“Donald Trump did not do that,” he mentioned. “He added a massive amount to the national debt. I’ll do that in a different direction.”
