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During last year's presidential campaign, the former president courted voters with pledges to reduce prices starting on day one. However, once his inauguration, he seemed to pay precious little attention to the cost of living. All that changed following inflation-weary citizens expressed dissatisfaction at the polls. Shortly thereafter, his team launched a slapdash campaign to address living costs. Regrettably, this initiative has proven a hot mess—characterized by illogical claims, contradictions, magical thinking, scapegoating, and misleading statements.

Out-of-Touch Claims and Supermarket Truth

Just two days post-election, Trump kicked off his affordability drive with a disastrous remark: “Our groceries are way down. All items is way down… So I don’t want to hear about affordability.” This comment from billionaire Trump—often mingles with fellow billionaires—demonstrated a lack of empathy for everyday citizens facing difficulties when visiting the grocery store. In effect, he ignored their concerns as trivial, suggesting they were mistaken about price levels.

His assertion that everything was “way down” was highly misleading and inaccurate. How could every price be falling when his cherished tariffs were increasing prices? Recent data show banana prices increased 6.9% over the past year, beef prices climbed 14.7%, and the cost of coffee jumped by nearly 19%—partly because of punitive tariffs on Brazil’s coffee and beef. In the first three quarters, costs increased in five of the six food categories monitored by the government’s price index, such as meats, poultry, and fish (rising over 4%), drinks (increasing nearly 3%), and fruits and vegetables (rising slightly).

Contradictions and Falsehoods in Economic Claims

Despite these numbers, Trump continues to push his big lie about affordability. After the vote, he has claimed there is “virtually no inflation,” 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 unarguably risen after the previous administration. At present, price growth is at a 3 percent per year, which is 50% higher than the Federal Reserve’s target of 2 percent. In another falsehood, he claimed that fuel costs had fallen to around two dollars, despite government figures indicate they are $3.19.

Confronted by reality and lower approval ratings, advisers apparently cautioned that his “prices are down” rhetoric portrayed him as disconnected from typical Americans. Many citizens are angry about rising costs after assurances of decreases. In response, aides proposed a simple solution: roll back certain import taxes. This sensible idea clashed with the president’s unrealistic claim that additional taxes wouldn’t raise prices for US consumers.

Proposed Solutions and Their Potential Effects

As some tariffs reduced on coffee, beef, tomatoes, and bananas, Trump will probably claim that he has cut prices once those foods begin to fall in price. This would be like an arsonist taking credit for extinguishing a fire that he ignited. On another occasion, while speaking McDonald’s executives, he declared that “we are in the peak period of America” and told the audience that “prices are coming down and all of that stuff.” Such statements come naturally for a wealthy individual to make, but seem insincere to countless households facing hardships—especially when many face losing food stamps or rising insurance costs.

Per a recent poll conducted last fall, 74% of Americans think economic conditions are mediocre or bad, while just a quarter consider them good or excellent. A separate survey found that a majority of citizens feel the administration’s actions have “made the economy worse” in the country.

Economic Truth and Suggested Measures

The treasury secretary, the president’s chief financial officer, lately contradicted assertions of a prosperous era. He stated that far from booming, certain sectors of the US economy “have contracted.” The manufacturing sector—which Trump vowed to save—appears to have contracted for eight months in a row and lost around 33,000 jobs this year. Pointing to these challenges, Bessent urged the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates—an action that could help affordability.

Reacting to widespread concern about living costs, the president proposed a cash handout of “a payout of at least $2,000 a person” excluding “the wealthy.” To numerous households in need, it seems like manna from heaven, but it is unlikely that Congress—concerned about large shortfalls—will enact the proposal. This idea could increase federal spending, increase interest rates, and possibly fuel inflation by injecting cash into consumers’ pockets.

A further proposed solution for cost issues centered on creating half-century home loans, with the notion that they could reduce monthly mortgage payments. But, the truth is that 50-year mortgages would do little to reduce installments—often reducing them by just $100 or $200 each month. The drawback is that these mortgages could more than double the overall cost homeowners pay and slow their accumulation of equity.

Faulting the Past Government and Economic Outlook

In their affordability campaign, the administration have again pointed fingers at the previous president for economic problems, such as increasing costs. Spokespeople claimed they “inherited a disaster from Joe Biden” and were “cleaning up the prior administration’s price hikes.” This is unfounded and untruthful allegations. Actually, the former president handed over a strong economy, with low price growth, solid expansion, and minimal joblessness. However, Trump’s policies—particularly his tariffs—have resulted in an difficult situation, driving costs higher and reducing economic output.

According to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, 22 states are already in recession, with their economies damaged by the administration’s trade policies. Zandi worries that if key regions such as California and New York tumble into recession, the US could slide into a broad economic slump. In downturns, consumers typically have less money to spend, and price increases often falls. Sadly, given Trump’s much-ballyhooed affordability campaign probably ineffective to hold down prices, his primary method for achieving increased affordability might prove to be triggering an economic contraction—something that hard-pressed households cannot handle.