Those hoping to see American consumers catch a break received another round of discouraging news this week, specifically related to grocery prices. Axios reported:
Grocery prices (or “food at home,” as the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls it) rose by 0.7% in December, the largest monthly gain since the peak inflation period in August 2022. Food inflation was evident at restaurants, too: Costs for dining out (or “food away from home”) rose by a similar amount, the largest monthly gain in three years. […]
Grocery prices were up roughly 2.4% in December compared to the prior year. But that masks double-digit price increases for a slew of household staples over the past 12 months, including coffee (+20%), beef (+16%) and candy (+10%).
With these numbers having been released by his own administration on Wednesday morning, Donald Trump had little choice but to acknowledge reality a few hours later during his speech in Detroit about the economy.
No, I’m just kidding. The president lied again anyway.
“Grocery prices are starting to go rapidly down,” the Republican president boasted, the same day his own administration told the public that grocery prices are now rising faster than at any time since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.
About a month after Election Day, Trump offered a candid assessment of why he won a second term — and it had nothing to do with immigration, crime, transgender Americans or even the economy in general.
“I won on groceries,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” adding: “I won an election based on that.” Looking ahead, the Republican went on to vow that he and his incoming team would bring food prices “way down.”
More than a year later, the president keeps pretending he has successfully delivered on that promise — reality be damned. And while Trump’s dishonesty is obviously one of his defining traits, this specific deception remains one of his most self-defeating lies. American consumers go to grocery stores all the time, and they know that prices haven’t gone “way down.” Trump can’t simply wave his hand and Jedi mind-trick the public into being happy about rising costs. Common sense might suggest that any political leader in this situation would have the good sense either to avoid the subject or to express some degree of sympathy for angry consumers. But Trump, reluctant to acknowledge his long list of failures, has instead decided to tell grocery-buying Americans not to believe their lying eyes — or wallets. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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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