People are left asking one question after Trump shows off new chart with no explanation what it shows
Donald Trump surprised reporters by suddenly calling them into the Oval Office to show off some shiny new charts—without explaining what they meant. The reporters had originally come to the White House for a ceremony to honor Purple Heart recipients. But before that event even started, Trump pulled them aside for a quick meeting.
He introduced Stephen Moore, an economist and senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Moore is also the co-author of the book Trumponomics, and he had put together data about the U.S. economy. This came just after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report showing that fewer jobs were added in July than experts had predicted.
Moore tried to challenge that report by saying the job numbers during Joe Biden’s last two years were exaggerated. Trump went even further, accusing the BLS of doing it “on purpose” to make him look bad. Moore said he had used some data from the Census Bureau—data that hasn’t been made public and is hard to verify. Based on those numbers, he helped create some charts that were supposed to highlight how well Trump is doing during his current term.
Moore claimed that in Trump’s first five months back in office, the average American family’s income—adjusted for inflation—had gone up by \$1,174. Trump called that number “incredible” and said no one would have believed it if he had just said it without proof.
At one point, Trump pointed to a specific chart and said it “says it better than anything.” He called it “pretty amazing.” The chart had a line going up, which seemed to suggest improvement in household income, but he never actually explained what the line meant. He only said: “All new numbers.”
The moment was confusing to many people watching. Some were left scratching their heads, asking: “What is this even about?” One person even joked that it looked like something from a comedy skit, or maybe something created by AI.
Later, people looking closer at the chart noticed its title: “Monthly Estimate of Net Change in Real Median Household Income.” It showed income going up from \$0 to \$1,174 since January. But since no clear explanation was given about how those numbers were calculated—or what exactly they meant—viewers remained puzzled. One person asked: “Why didn’t any reporter just ask him to explain the chart?”
In the end, the whole event seemed like a strange performance, with flashy graphs and big claims—but not much clarity.
