❓WHAT HAPPENED: Fox Business appears to be jumping ship on President Donald J. Trump after host Taylor Riggs warned the economy was facing dire straits following new inflation data and market turmoil stemming from U.S. military actions against Iran.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Taylor Riggs, President Trump, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and Iranian and Saudi officials.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Inflation data was released in March 2026, amid turmoil in the Middle East and global markets.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Fresh and dried vegetables were up 49 percent. So, there’s something going on. Maybe it is a one-off that we could debate, but I don’t like the trend.” – Taylor Riggs
🎯IMPACT: The Fox Business host contends that rising inflation, global market instability, and heightened tensions in the Middle East have created economic uncertainty.
Fox Business host Taylor Riggs appears convinced that the U.S. economy is weakening on reports of an uptick in inflation and ongoing market volatility stemming from the U.S. military operation targeting the Islamic Republic of Iran. Riggs specifically honed in on February’s inflation data, which showed an uptick of 0.7 percent—exceeding the forecasted 0.3 percent increase.
“I’m really, really not happy about this inflationary report,” Riggs stated during the broadcast, continuing, “And I know that it is one data point, the Fed looks through it, we try to look at two or three-month trends.”
“But this does not look good to me. I don’t like sitting here after everything we’re talking about and saying, ‘Oh, but it’s just one month,’ because unfortunately, March is guaranteed—95 percent chance—to get worse than what we saw,” Riggs added.
The Fox Business host also pointed to a slight uptick in certain grocery prices, stating, “Fresh and dried vegetables were up 49 percent. So, there’s something going on. Maybe it is a one-off that we could debate, but I don’t like the trend.”
All-in-all, Riggs’s analysis could be correct. The ongoing military strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran have destabilized global energy markets—though Asia appears most impacted at the moment. Still, the inflation numbers only represent one month of data, giving no evidence of any broader trend.
Meanwhile, other economic indicators run counter to Riggs’s assessment. FedEx on Thursday announced its third-quarter earnings beat expectations, with revenue of $24 billion, above the estimated $23.4 billion. The FedEx earnings suggest consumption remains strong, which would not be indicative of a weakening economy.
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