What did Donald Trump do today?
He said virtually every price was going down, which is exactly the opposite of the truth.
Tuesday's election was a humiliating rebuke of Trump, and not just in "blue states" like New Jersey, but in swing states like Pennsylvania and Virginia, and conservative strongholds like Mississippi. Even his usual base of support is furious about the fallout from his trade war, attacks on basic freedoms, and increasingly erratic behavior. Not even ten months into his second term, Trump is profoundly unpopular: he had a 37%-63% approval/disapproval rating in a recent poll.
Trump's reaction has been a social media campaign focused on the problem of inflation, declaring that he has already solved it—no matter what Americans are seeing with their own eyes when they pay for gas and groceries. For example, he posted this to his boutique microblogging site today:
2025 Thanksgiving dinner under Trump is 25% lower than 2024 Thanksgiving dinner under Biden, according to Walmart. My cost are lower than the Democrats on everything, especially oil and gas! So the Democrats “affordability” issue is DEAD! STOP LYING!!!
Actually, Trump is the one "LYING!!!" here. As many people immediately pointed out, Walmart's 2025 Thanksgiving shopping list had six more items on it than its 2024 list, and the 2025 list had more store-brand products.
In other words, Trump's claim that Thanksgiving dinner will be cheaper this year than it was under President Biden is true, as long as you eat less food of lower quality.
He repeated that claim to reporters today, then added that gasoline prices were just over $2, or as he put it: "I don't want to hear about the affordability, because right now we're much less [sic]. If you look at energy, we're getting close to $2 a gallon gasoline." But the average price at American pumps today was $3.08 per gallon.
In reality, prices overall are up well above the nominal inflation target of 2%, particularly for things like groceries and electricity that Americans cannot avoid buying.
Why does this matter?
- Presidents shouldn't lie about the prices of food, gas, and electricity to people who actually have to pay for their own food, gas, and electricity.
- Reality doesn't change just because Donald Trump wants people to like him.