By Daniel Dale, CNN
(CNN) — When President Donald Trump claimed to NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas in a Wednesday interview that “I’m getting – starting to get great polls on the economy,” Llamas quickly pushed back by noting that Trump’s polling on the economy is “not great.”
Trump immediately backed off his assertion, retreating to a claim that his economy-related polling “should be great.”
That was a textbook moment in political interviewing – but it was one of the only times in the interview that Llamas challenged one of Trump’s false claims. Over and over, when the president repeated lies that were debunked months or years ago, Llamas responded simply “right” or “yeah” – or didn’t acknowledge them at all.
Trump’s rapid-fire dishonesty is difficult for any interviewer to handle, especially given the limited time they are given by the White House, and it’s not uncommon for them to largely ignore the serial inaccuracy in order to get to the topics they’ve planned to address. Llamas certainly asked the president various skeptical and important questions, including some sharp follow-ups. And NBC published a fact check of some of the false claims in a Wednesday article on its website.
But Llamas’ hands-off approach to the president’s falsehoods left people watching the interview on television and through social media clips without immediate corrective information on a variety of pressing subjects. An exchange about inflation, for example, was littered with a bunch of inaccurate Trump figures and assertions that Llamas let pass by with the word “right.” And in one case, when Trump claimed it’s only “very few” product prices that have stubbornly refused to fall during this presidency, Llamas initially responded with a comment that made it sound like he was endorsing the false claim: “Yeah, very few. I get it.”
Here is a CNN fact check of some of Trump’s remarks in the interview. An NBC spokesperson declined to comment.
Inflation and the economy
Prices during this presidency
Trump’s claim: Llamas told Trump, “Talking about the economy, you’ve brought a lot of prices down, as we said. Some are still stubborn.” Trump responded, “Very few.”
Fact check: It’s not “very few” prices that are stubbornly refusing to decline. Overall prices have increased during this presidency, Consumer Price Index data shows – in December 2025, average consumer prices were 2.7% higher than they were in December 2024 – and far more products have gotten more expensive since Trump’s January 2025 inauguration than have gotten cheaper.
Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: Llamas echoed Trump’s false claim, saying, “But – but when – yeah, very few. I get it.” He then proceeded to ask Trump, “When you talk to Americans, though, do you have to get them to understand that the prices are not gonna come back down to your first term because we had a pandemic and we had record inflation?”
The inflation Trump inherited
Trump’s claim: Trump claimed, “I inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country. It was through the roof. Now, you will say it