U.S. President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and U.S. Health and Human Services

The faltering U.S. economy eight months into President Donald Trump's second term is apparently a sensitive topic for at least one administration official.

During a recent interview with Axios, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was asked about how the administration planned to handle persistently poor economic performance. Axios co-founder Mike Allen reminded Lutnick of data from August showing a 4.3 percent inflation rate — which was the highest rate on record since 2021 — and other worrying signs like a flagging manufacturing sector and the fact that there are now more unemployed workers than job openings.

"If [former President Joe] Biden had numbers like that, you'd be on Fox saying, 'what's going on?'" Allen said.

READ MORE: 'Republican for Trump': Alleged Kirk shooter's grandmother confirms entire family is MAGA

"So, the economy that Donald Trump owns starts at the end of this year," Lutnick said, which prompted Allen to interject: "It doesn't work that way!"

Lutnick's comment drew widespread mockery on social media from various economic experts, journalists and others. Former CNN and MSNBC writer John Flowers took note of Lutnick's history of shifting goalposts, writing that in late July the Commerce secretary declared that Trump's economy "has officially arrived." He then quoted Lutnick's comment from earlier this week in which he said the president's economy was "just beginning," before pivoting during his Axios interview and saying it wouldn't begin until late 2025. Liberal group MeidasTouch also quoted Lutnick's July 30 tweet in which he announced that three percent GDP growth signaled the arrival of Trump's economic regime.

"The Trump administration is doing a pretty terrible job trying to assign blame elsewhere for what doesn't work. In this case they claim the Trump economy only starts at the end of 2025," political scientist J.C. Hoffman tweeted. Everything before is Biden's fault, I guess."

"Trump‘s entire team, starting with him, is a bunch of economic illiterates," tweeted software engineer Josh Roach. "They were chosen for loyalty and now they have to go his sell snake oil to the American people. No one is gonna buy it."

READ MORE: Trump's 'chief gaslighter' finally facing scandal she can't spin