This is the June 11, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I love the inflation.”
— President Donald Trump,asked for comment about May’s inflation numbers, the highest since 2023
JOE’S NOTE
“I love the inflation.”
Donald Trump’s confession is a revealing one.
At a time when working Americans are struggling under the weight of higher grocery bills, rent spikes, and punishing interest rates, the president’s bizarre quip is more than tone-deaf. It is political suicide.
Trump’s callousness underscores a bigger problem for Republicans fighting to win elections in November.
Their leader has a strange habit of openly discounting the economic pain working Americans are confronting under his presidency.
And yet Trump keeps dismissing the affordability crisis as a “hoax.”
When asked what he thought about negotiations as Americans are struggling because of the war, he told reporters, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.”
The old saying goes, “Believe someone when they tell you who they are.” Voters will this fall, and that will likely be very bad news for Republicans.
STEVE RATTNER’S CHARTS
Rattner: “In January, the markets were expecting substantial rate cuts. Now the market thinks interest rates will be higher at the end of this year than they are now, which means higher costs for consumers. This is potentially very bad news for the president, politically.”
ON THIS DATE
On June 11, 1963, Vivian Malone and James Hood enrolled at the University of Alabama, becoming the first Black students admitted into the college and marking the start of school desegregation in the state. Gov. George Wallace, a segregationist, stood in the doorway to block their entry until President John F. Kennedy sent in National Guard troops to remove him.
Vivian Malone and James A. Hood, both 20, interviewed by reporters as segregation in schools was broken by their entrance to the University of Alabama.
WHAT THEY SAID
Willie Geist on the Knicks victory