During last year's race for the White House, the former president courted the electorate with pledges to reduce costs immediately upon taking office. However, once his inauguration, he seemed to pay precious little focus to the cost of living. All that changed following inflation-weary voters delivered a rebuke at the ballot box. Shortly thereafter, his team launched a hastily assembled effort to address affordability. Regrettably, the drive is a hot mess—filled with absurdity, contradictions, magical thinking, scapegoating, and misleading statements.
Merely 48 hours post-election, Trump began his affordability drive with a poorly received statement: “Food prices are way down. Everything is way down… So I don’t want to hear about affordability.” These words from billionaire Trump—who frequently mingles with other ultra-rich individuals—demonstrated a lack of empathy for everyday citizens facing difficulties every time they go supermarkets. In effect, he ignored their concerns as trivial, suggesting they had it wrong about price levels.
His assertion about declining prices proved absurdly obtuse and dishonest. In what way could every price be decreasing when the taxes he imposed were pushing up prices? Official statistics show banana prices rose 6.9% in the last twelve months, beef prices climbed 14.7%, and the cost of coffee surged by nearly 19%—in part due to import taxes on Brazil’s coffee and beef. Between January and September, prices rose in five of the six food categories tracked by the Consumer Price Index, such as meats, poultry, and fish (rising over 4%), non-alcoholic beverages (up 2.8%), and produce (rising slightly).
Despite the evidence, the president continues to push his big lie about affordability. Since election day, he has claimed there is “almost no price increases,” insisted “prices are way down,” and argued “it is far less expensive under Trump than it was under his predecessor.” Such remarks ignore the reality that prices overall have clearly increased since Biden left office. At present, price growth is running at a 3 percent per year, that’s 50% higher than the central bank’s 2% goal. In another falsehood, Trump boasted that fuel costs had dropped to nearly $2 a gallon, despite government figures show they average $3.19.
Faced with actual conditions and declining opinion polls, advisers apparently cautioned that his “costs are falling” message portrayed him as dangerously out of touch from ordinary people. Many citizens are angry about prices continuing to climb after promises of decreases. In response, aides proposed a simple solution: roll back some of Trump’s beloved tariffs. The logical move clashed with the president’s unrealistic claim that new tariffs wouldn’t raise prices for US consumers.
With some tariffs reduced on coffee, beef, tomatoes, and bananas, Trump will likely announce that he has cut prices once those foods start declining in price. That would be similar to a firestarter taking credit for extinguishing a fire that he had started. On another occasion, when addressing McDonald’s executives, he stated that “we are in the peak period of America” and told listeners that “costs are decreasing and all of that stuff.” Such statements are easy for a billionaire to make, but they ring hollow to millions of Americans who are struggling—especially when millions face cuts to nutrition assistance or skyrocketing health premiums.
According to a recent poll conducted last fall, three-quarters of respondents think economic conditions are mediocre or bad, while only 26% consider them positive. Another poll found that 61% of Americans feel the administration’s actions have “worsened economic conditions” in the country.
Scott Bessent, the president’s chief financial officer, recently disputed claims of a golden age. He stated that far from booming, certain sectors of the American economy “have contracted.” The manufacturing sector—which Trump vowed to save—seems to have shrunk for eight months in a row and shed around 33,000 jobs this year. Citing these challenges, Bessent called on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates—a move that could help affordability.
Reacting to widespread concern about affordability, Trump suggested a direct payment of “a dividend of at least $2,000 a person” not for “the wealthy.” For many struggling Americans, it seems like manna from heaven, but the prospects are dim that lawmakers—already alarmed about large shortfalls—will enact the proposal. The scheme could raise government expenditure, increase interest rates, and potentially drive prices higher by putting more money into consumers’ pockets.
A further supposed fix for cost issues centered on introducing 50-year mortgages, based on the idea that they could reduce monthly mortgage payments. But, the truth is that such lengthy loans would do little to reduce installments—often cutting them by a small amount each month. The downside is that these mortgages could more than double the overall cost homeowners pay and hinder their accumulation of equity.
As part of their cost-cutting effort, Trump and his team have once more pointed fingers at the previous president for economic problems, such as rising prices. Officials stated they “faced a mess from Joe Biden” and were “cleaning up the prior administration’s price hikes.” These are absurd and untruthful claims. Actually, Biden handed over a robust economic situation, with low price growth, solid expansion, and minimal joblessness. But, Trump’s policies—especially his tariffs—have created an difficult situation, pushing up prices and slowing GDP growth.
According to an economist, lead analyst at a research firm, 22 states are experiencing economic decline, with their conditions worsened by Trump’s tariffs. He worries that if key regions such as California and New York tumble into recession, the nation could face a widespread recession. In downturns, consumers typically have reduced funds to spend, and price increases usually declines. Unfortunately, given the highly-touted affordability campaign likely to do little to control costs, his most effective “tool” for achieving increased affordability might end up pushing the nation into recession—a scenario that struggling Americans cannot handle.
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