When asked why Trump said, because I won consumer confidence is way up, note, 5th consecutive month it went up, the last time it went down was right after the first debate when Biden did so poorly. If Trump was the catalyst for consumer confidence it would have gone UP after the debate since that boosted his campaign.
Musk had a different take, inflation is so high everything costs more so of course spending was a record, you had to pay more to get the same stuff as last year. Again totally untrue inflation is down.
Consumers, when asked why they spent more in polling said, because I wanted to buy things and take trips before tariffs make everything more expensive .