'What world is he living in?': Bernie Sanders fires back at Trump's 'greatest economy ever' statement

Speaking to Fox Business' Larry Kudlow on February 10, President Donald Trump asserted that the American economy under his presidency has become "the greatest economy ever in history." During the course of the interview, which Kudlow said was "on message", Trump cited the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossing 50,000 as evidence of this economic strength. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, however, sharply criticised the President's statements, questioning, "What world is he living in?"

"Just because the 1% is doing well doesn't mean everyone else is," Sanders wrote on X, citing homelessness, lack of insurance, and lack of savings. Sanders' set of metrics— "60% live paycheck to paycheck", "85M are uninsured or underinsured", "800,000 are homeless", and "AI could replace 100M jobs"—comes from the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee office, where he is a Ranking Member.

While Trump cited the stock market highs, economic growth projected at 5.4%for the fourth quarter, and White House figures showing a drop in unemployment rate, Sanders countered that it would be "crazy and delusional" when "the cost of the health care is going up, people can't afford housing, people can't afford their basic groceries, child care system is dysfunctional, people can't afford to go to college," on MS Now's 'All In with Chris Hayes'.

"The billionaires who sat behind Trump at his inauguration, yeah, the economy is the best ever for them, but for the average working person, not quite the case," Sanders told Hayes. Sanders' statements are backed by Federal Reserve data from Q3 2025 that show that the top 1% of U.S. households held over $55 trillion in total assets, while the bottom 50% held roughly $10 trillion. Additionally, according to an analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies, the combined wealth of 935 U.S. billionaires surged to $8.1 trillion at the end of 2025, up from $6.7 trillion a year ago.

Addressing the White House's 4.3% unemployment rate, Sanders argued that it masked a crisis for industrial workers faced by the advent of Artificial Intelligence. "I've talked to a lot of working-class audiences, people are very worried about the implication of robotics for their jobs in factories and in warehouses," he said. Notably, blue-collar industries like manufacturing, construction, and utilities registered nearly 166,000 job losses between February 2025 and January 2026, as per the Center for American Progress.

Sanders isn't the only one questioning President Trump's claims of a "golden economy". A recent Pew Research Center poll found that only 28% of Americans considered the country's economic conditions excellent or good. "About three-in-ten U.S. adults (28%) rate economic conditions in the country as excellent or good, while roughly seven-in-ten (72%) rate them as only fair or poor," Pew noted, with the data citing health care and housing costs, and prices of food and consumer goods as the top concerns for Americans.