Mike Johnson attempts to defend Trump after president says ‘I love the inflation’ – as it happened

Hours after Donald Trump brushed off concerns about new data showing that inflation jumped to an annual rate of 4.2% in May by saying “I love the inflation”, the US House speaker, Mike Johnson, accused a CNN journalist of taking the president’s comment “totally out of context”. “The president is laser-focused on the domestic economic situation”, Johnson insisted. “He is working to bring down prices; his working to get the strait of Hormuz reopened.” As he walked through the US Capitol, trailed by reporters, Johnson said that the meaning of the president’s comment, which was made in his presence during an Oval Office event, was crystal-clear, at least to him. “What he was saying is: ‘It’s going to be great to have that number and compare it to what comes next, when we get these situations resolved, that’ll be a fun thing to consider,’” the Republican congressman suggested. In fact, Trump’s meaning was far from clear, coming at the start of a rambling answer to the question of whether he was concerned “about the latest inflation number, which came out this morning”. “No, I love it, the numbers were great. You know what I really loved? I love th