President Donald Trump issued the economy under his leadership a grade of “A-plus-plus” in a new interview with Politico published Tuesday — a remark that critics said would come back to haunt him in the upcoming midterms as costs for basic necessities like food, housing and energy continue to skyrocket.

“I do want to talk about the economy here at home,” said Politico’s Dasha Burns. “And I wonder what grade you would give your economy.”

“A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus,” Trump proudly boasted.

The comment immediately raised eyebrows among critics, many of whom pointed to the recent off-year elections in which Democratic candidates swept while running on the issue of affordability.

“If affordability continues to be a major concern for voters, I have to imagine this is going to be clipped and used endlessly in ads come 2026,” wrote Zack Stanton, deputy managing editor for MS NOW, in a social media post Tuesday on X.

Trump ran heavily on the issue of affordability in his 2024 campaign, messaging that proved successful as inflation soared throughout the later years of the Biden administration amid the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated disruptions to global supply chains and corporate price gouging.

Yet, despite pleading to lower costs for basic goods, prices have continued to increase, and in large part due to the Trump administration’s own policies on tariffs and investments in artificial intelligence.

“Yikes,” said another in response to Trump’s boasting about the economy, former Pentagon spokesperson Chris Meagher, in a social media post on X.

In the wake of Democrats’ election victories last month running on the issue of affordability, Trump has

since adopted

the use of the word “affordability” in his own messaging, but has still continued to attack the word as a “

con job

,” a “fake narrative” and a “Democrat scam.”