The economic numbers are in, and despite celebrations from the administration, Americans aren’t feeling the promised relief. While venture capitalists and tech leaders debate AI policy and celebrate stock market gains, a stark disconnect has emerged between their optimism and the reality facing everyday citizens.
During the latest All-In Podcast, host Jason Calacanis pressed the panel on this gap between promise and delivery. “Trump promised something completely different,” he noted. “He said starting on day one we will end inflation and make America affordable again. Prices have not come down. They’ve gone up 2.5 to 3.1 percent.”
The administration’s strongest defender, David Sacks, pointed to encouraging signs: inflation dropping to 2.7 percent from Biden-era highs of 9 percent, with core inflation at 2.6 percent and trending even lower at 1.6 percent over the past three months. Gas prices have fallen to their lowest in five years, below three dollars nationally. Real wages have increased by over one thousand dollars on average.
Yet these statistics miss what matters most to struggling families. “The American people don’t believe the Trump administration right now,” Calacanis insisted, citing polls showing Trump’s approval rating at historic lows, particularly on inflation and the economy. “Whether it’s the federal employees, whether it’s private sector, there’s more work to do.”
The unemployment picture reveals the complexity. The rate rose to 4.6 percent from 4 percent when Trump took office in January 2025. While 162,000 of the job losses came from federal government positions due to Department of Government Efficiency buyouts, the overall market remains frozen. As one Moody’s analyst observed, “There’s not much hiring. There’s not much firing happening.”
Chamath Palihapitiya acknowledged the perception problem facing tech leaders. “We have a huge perception issue in AI,” he said. “We have a handful of companies. All the PR that you see from those handful of companies is a bunch of circular deal making. It causes these stocks to go up of which a small percentage of people benefit.”
Half the country doesn’t own stocks, so they’re not participating in the market gains. Meanwhile, they’re seeing headlines about self-driving cars and hearing concerns about job displacement. “People are scared and our industry is scaring them,” Calacanis argued.
The venture capitalists recognized their industry’s communication failure. Drawing lessons from the Gilded Age, Palihapitiya suggested tech companies need to create tangible benefits that tens of millions of Americans can feel. “Andrew Carnegie built 2,500 libraries,” he noted. “We need to self-organize better and we need to be more on the forward foot.”
Sacks defended the administration’s record, arguing it inherited a giant mess from Biden’s presidency, when real wages fell by three thousand dollars. He insisted the economic super tanker takes time to turn around, comparing the situation to Reagan’s early years. Tax cuts on tips, overtime, and Social Security haven’t even taken effect yet.
But Calacanis remained unconvinced by the talking points. “I’m just pointing out the disconnect. The American people don’t believe you. There’s more work to do.” He noted that while he’s personally doing well because he owns equities, “I’m concerned that the bottom half of society needs to do a little bit better.”
The conversation revealed a broader truth: whether measuring by 2.7 percent inflation or 1.6 percent trends, the numbers don’t capture what families experience at grocery stores or when looking for jobs. Trump promised prices would drop and jobs would flourish. Instead, prices continued rising and unemployment increased 15 percent from his first day in office.
As the administration enters its second year, the challenge isn’t just economic policy but bridging the gap between Wall Street celebration and Main Street struggle. The venture capitalists may be right that better days lie ahead, but Americans are judging based on what they’ve seen so far, not projections for 2026.
And by that measure, even allies acknowledge the golden age hasn’t arrived for the bottom half of the country.