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During last year's presidential campaign, the former president courted the electorate with pledges to lower costs starting on day one. However, once he assumed office, he seemed to pay minimal focus to the cost of living. All that changed following inflation-weary voters delivered a rebuke at the ballot box. Shortly thereafter, the Trump administration launched a slapdash campaign to tackle affordability. Unfortunately, the drive is a disorganized endeavor—characterized by absurdity, contradictions, magical thinking, blame-shifting, and Trumpian dishonesty.

Detached Claims and Supermarket Reality

Merely 48 hours post-election, Trump began his affordability drive with a poorly received remark: “Food prices are way down. Everything is way down… So I don’t want to hear about the cost of living.” These words from billionaire Trump—who frequently mingles with fellow billionaires—revealed utter contempt for millions of Americans who struggle when visiting the grocery store. Essentially, he ignored their struggles as trivial, suggesting they had it wrong about actual costs.

His assertion about declining prices was absurdly obtuse and inaccurate. How could every price be falling when his cherished tariffs were increasing costs? Recent data show banana prices increased nearly 7% over the past year, beef prices climbed almost 15%, and the cost of coffee surged 18.9%—in part due to punitive tariffs on Brazil’s coffee and beef. Between January and September, costs increased in five of the six main grocery groups monitored by the government’s price index, including meats, poultry, and fish (up 4.5%), non-alcoholic beverages (up 2.8%), and fruits and vegetables (rising slightly).

Contradictions and Inaccuracies in Economic Claims

In spite of these numbers, Trump continues to push his big lie about lower costs. After the vote, he has claimed there is “almost no price increases,” declared “costs have fallen significantly,” and asserted “living is cheaper under Trump than it was under sleepy Joe Biden.” These statements contradict the fact that general costs have clearly increased after the previous administration. At present, inflation is running at a 3% annual rate, which is half again as much than the central bank’s target of 2 percent. In another falsehood, Trump boasted that gas prices had fallen to around two dollars, even though official data show they average over three dollars.

Faced with actual conditions and lower approval ratings, some Trump aides apparently cautioned that his “costs are falling” message portrayed him as disconnected from typical Americans. Many voters are frustrated about prices continuing to climb following promises of reductions. As a result, advisers proposed a simple solution: roll back certain import taxes. This sensible idea contradicted the president’s unrealistic claim that new tariffs would not increase costs for US consumers.

Proposed Fixes and Their Potential Effects

With some tariffs reduced on several food items, the administration will probably announce that he has lowered costs once those foods begin to fall in price. This would be similar to a firestarter boasting for extinguishing a fire that he had started. In another instance, when addressing fast-food leaders, Trump stated that “we are in the peak period of America” and assured listeners that “costs are decreasing and all of that stuff.” These comments are easy for a billionaire to make, but they ring hollow to countless households facing hardships—especially when many face cuts to nutrition assistance or rising insurance costs.

Per a recent poll from October, 74% of Americans think the state of the economy are mediocre or bad, while just a quarter consider them good or excellent. A separate survey showed that 61% of Americans feel the administration’s actions have “made the economy worse” in the country.

Economic Truth and Proposed Measures

The treasury secretary, the president’s top economic official, recently contradicted assertions of a prosperous era. He stated that instead of thriving, certain sectors of the American economy “have contracted.” Industrial production—which Trump vowed to save—seems to have shrunk for eight months in a row and lost approximately tens of thousands of positions since January. Pointing to these challenges, Bessent urged the central bank to reduce borrowing costs—an action that could help affordability.

Reacting to widespread concern about affordability, the president suggested a cash handout of “a payout of at least $2,000 a person” excluding “the wealthy.” To numerous struggling Americans, this sounds like a financial lifeline, but the prospects are dim that lawmakers—already alarmed about huge budget deficits—will enact the proposal. This idea could increase federal spending, push up borrowing costs, and possibly fuel inflation by putting more money into consumers’ pockets.

A further supposed fix for affordability involved introducing half-century home loans, based on the idea that they could lower housing costs. But, the truth is that such lengthy loans have minimal impact to reduce installments—frequently reducing them by just $100 or $200 each month. The downside is that these loans could more than double the total interest borrowers pay and hinder building home value.

Blaming the Past Government and Economic Prospects

In their affordability campaign, the administration have once more blamed the previous president for financial challenges, such as rising prices. Spokespeople claimed they “faced a mess from Joe Biden” and were “cleaning up the prior administration’s price hikes.” These are absurd and inaccurate allegations. In reality, the former president handed over a robust economic situation, with low price growth, solid expansion, and unemployment low. But, the current administration’s actions—especially import taxes—have created an economic mess, pushing up prices and slowing GDP growth.

Per Mark Zandi, lead analyst at a research firm, numerous regions are already in recession, with their economies damaged by Trump’s tariffs. Zandi fears that if key regions such as major economies enter a downturn, the US could slide into a broad economic slump. In downturns, consumers generally possess reduced funds to spend, and price increases often falls. Unfortunately, with the highly-touted affordability campaign likely to do little to control costs, his most effective “tool” for improving living standards might end up triggering an economic contraction—something that hard-pressed households cannot handle.