TL.📢 TOP STORY: Rachel Maddow turns Trump’s “hoax” jab at affordability into a real-world reality check that hits wallets where it hurts 

At a Tuesday cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump waved off a reporter’s question about Americans perhaps “growing impatient” with his administration’s plan to fix the economy, saying that “affordability is a hoax” and “a Democratic con job.”

This despite the fact that consumer prices are up a few percentage points year-over-year, due in part, economists believe, to the tariffs levied by Trump since re-taking office, as well as other administration policies.

Hours after the cabinet meeting, during her latest visit to CBS’ The Late Show, Maddow and host Stephen Colbert took on Trump’s take on “affordability” (whilst mixing Manhattans for each other).

“My favorite thing about this is that this is one you can fact-check at home!” said Maddow. “You don’t need to count on the professionals to do this.

“When you go to the grocery store and you get your bill, you can say, ‘Donald Trump says I can afford this’ and just see if it works,” Maddow continued. “You may not have the money, but if Trump says that is a hoax, check it yourself at home. I feel like this will be the vindication of all fact-checkers because now everybody can do it themselves.”

Maddow then wondered aloud to Colbert, “Also, if it is a hoax, shouldn’t he be able to fix it?”

Replied Colbert, “He doesn’t have to fix it, because it doesn’t exist.”

When Colbert acknowledged that President Joe Biden was also guilty of pooh-poohing inflation Qs and touting “the greatest economy of all time!,” Maddow agreed, adding: “The problem when politicians do stuff like that is everybody else has to live in the real world.

“So when they’re say things they believe are from the real world and palpably are not, ultimately it comes back and bites them in the butt,” she added, eliciting cheers from the audience.