In Donald Trump’s first term as president, he would occasionally make comments about groceries that suggested he hadn’t been in a supermarket in a long while. In 2018, for example, the Republican insisted that consumers had to show ID to purchase breakfast cereals. He later added that it was also necessary to present identification to buy bread.
Shortly before returning to the White House, Trump revisited this theme during an appearance at the New York Stock Exchange, referencing a woman who wanted to buy three apples, but as a result of inflation, “she walked one of the apples back to the refrigerator.” (Grocery stores don’t keep apples in refrigerators.)
But more recently, Trump has shifted his attention away from what happens inside grocery stores and toward the word “groceries” itself. Consider the president’s Rose Garden remarks in which he pitched his new policy on trade tariffs.
Trump: "An old fashioned term that we use — groceries. I used it on the campaign. It's such an old fashioned term, but a beautiful term. Groceries. It says a bag with different things in it."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-04-02T20:48:46.133Z
“It’s such an old-fashioned term, but a beautiful term: groceries,” Trump said. “It says ‘a bag with different things in it.’”
Last week, he said something similar, declaring at another White House event that “groceries” is “a beautiful word.”
A day earlier, the president appeared on Newsmax and said, “I haven’t used the word ‘groceries.’ It’s like an old-fashioned word, but really it’s not. And people understand it.”
Around the same time, at a White House Cabinet meeting, he again referred to “groceries” as “an old-fashioned word,” adding, “but it’s a very descriptive word.”
This came on the heels of a pre-inaugural appearance on “Meet the Press,” in which Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker, “I won on groceries. Very simple word, groceries. Like almost — you know, who uses the word? I started using the word — the groceries.” Of course, Trump says all kinds of foolish things on a daily basis, and it’s probably best not to get too worked up about every random absurdity. But as the White House appears to be pushing the country closer to an easily avoidable recession and the president is setting your 401(k) on fire, that he considers “groceries” to be an exotic term doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. Complicating matters, during the 2024 campaign, Trump assured voters that “grocery prices will come tumbling down” if he won a second term. After his victory, Time magazine asked him a rather pointed question: “If the prices of groceries don’t come down, will your presidency be a failure?” Trump replied, “I don’t think so. Look, they got them up. I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.” Maybe the president should just stop talking about old-fashioned bags with different things in them altogether?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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