Throughout last year's race for the White House, Donald Trump courted the electorate with promises to lower prices immediately upon taking office. However, after he assumed office, there was precious little focus to the cost of living. All that changed following inflation-weary voters expressed dissatisfaction at the polls. Within days, his team launched a slapdash effort to tackle affordability. Unfortunately, the drive has proven a hot mess—characterized by illogical claims, inconsistencies, unrealistic expectations, scapegoating, and misleading statements.
Just two days post-election, the president kicked off his cost-reduction push with a disastrous remark: “Our groceries are way down. All items is way down… So I don’t want to hear about the cost of living.” This comment from the wealthy leader—often associates with fellow billionaires—demonstrated a lack of empathy for everyday citizens facing difficulties every time they go supermarkets. Essentially, he ignored their concerns as unimportant, suggesting they had it wrong about actual costs.
His assertion that everything was “way down” was absurdly obtuse and dishonest. How could every price be falling when his cherished tariffs were pushing up prices? Official statistics indicate the cost of bananas rose nearly 7% in the last twelve months, the price of beef went up 14.7%, and coffee prices surged 18.9%—partly due to import taxes applied to Brazilian products. Between January and September, costs increased in five of the six main grocery groups 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).
In spite of these numbers, the president continues to push his misleading narrative about lower costs. After the vote, he has stated there is “almost no price increases,” insisted “costs have fallen significantly,” and argued “it is far less expensive under Trump than it was under sleepy Joe Biden.” These statements ignore the fact that prices overall have unarguably risen after the previous administration. Currently, inflation is at a 3% annual rate, that’s half again as much than the central bank’s 2% goal. In another falsehood, he claimed that gas prices had fallen to nearly $2 a gallon, despite government figures show they average over three dollars.
Faced with reality and lower approval ratings, some Trump aides apparently cautioned that his “costs are falling” message made him sound dangerously out of touch from ordinary people. A lot of voters are angry about rising costs following assurances of reductions. As a result, aides suggested a simple solution: roll back certain import taxes. The logical move contradicted Trump’s absurd assertion that new tariffs would not increase costs for US consumers.
As some tariffs reduced on coffee, beef, tomatoes, and bananas, the administration will likely claim that he has cut prices once those foods begin to fall in price. This would be similar to a firestarter taking credit for putting out a fire that he ignited. In another instance, while speaking McDonald’s executives, Trump stated that “we are in the golden age of America” and assured the audience that “costs are decreasing and all of that stuff.” These comments come naturally for a billionaire to make, but seem insincere to countless households facing hardships—especially when many risk cuts to nutrition assistance or skyrocketing health premiums.
According to a recent poll conducted last fall, 74% of Americans believe the state of the economy are fair or poor, while only 26% rate them good or excellent. Another poll found that a majority of citizens say the administration’s actions have “worsened economic conditions” in the country.
Scott Bessent, the president’s top economic official, lately disputed assertions of a golden age. He stated that far from booming, certain sectors of the American economy “have contracted.” The manufacturing sector—a priority for the administration—seems to have shrunk for eight months in a row and lost around 33,000 jobs this year. Pointing to these challenges, Bessent called on the Federal Reserve to reduce borrowing costs—an action that could ease financial pressure.
In response to widespread concern about living costs, Trump suggested a direct payment of “a dividend of at least $2,000 a person” not for “high income people.” To numerous households in need, this sounds like a financial lifeline, but the prospects are dim that lawmakers—already alarmed about huge budget deficits—will approve such a plan. This idea could raise government expenditure, increase borrowing costs, and possibly drive prices higher by putting more money into the economy.
Another supposed fix for affordability involved introducing 50-year mortgages, with the notion that this would reduce monthly mortgage payments. However, the truth is that such lengthy loans have minimal impact to reduce installments—often cutting them by a small amount per month. The drawback is that these loans could significantly increase the total interest borrowers pay and hinder building home value.
In their cost-cutting effort, the administration have again blamed the previous president for economic problems, including increasing costs. Spokespeople stated they “inherited a disaster from Joe Biden” and were “cleaning up the prior administration’s price hikes.” These are unfounded and untruthful claims. In reality, Biden left a strong economy, with inflation way down, solid expansion, and unemployment low. But, the current administration’s actions—particularly import taxes—have resulted in an economic mess, pushing up prices and slowing GDP growth.
Per Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, numerous regions are already in recession, with their economies damaged by Trump’s tariffs. He worries that if key regions like major economies tumble into recession, the US could slide into a broad economic slump. In downturns, consumers typically have reduced funds to spend, and inflation often falls. Sadly, given the highly-touted cost initiative likely to do little to control costs, his primary method for achieving increased affordability might prove to be pushing the nation into recession—a scenario that hard-pressed households cannot handle.
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