This is an adapted excerpt from the Jan. 27 episode of “Inside with Jen Psaki.”
Donald Trump believes Americans sent him back to the White House to lower grocery prices. He said as much to NBC News’ Kristen Welker back in December.
“I won on groceries,” Trump told Welker. “Very simple word, groceries. Like almost — you know, who uses the word? I started using the word — the groceries. When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time, and I won an election based on that. We’re going to bring those prices way down.”
“It’s working,” Bannon said. “It’s just stunning to me what they’re doing, and it’s not getting covered because it’s too much. They’re overwhelming the system.”
Now, maybe Americans did send Trump back to the White House to lower prices, but during his first week in office — a period of time when presidents typically use their power to make clear what their priorities are — he focused on anything but.
Trump pardoned every defendant charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, including the ones who brutally attacked police. He even freed people like Stewart Rhodes, who directed his far-right Oath Keepers militia to storm the Capitol. On Saturday, just days after leaving jail, Rhodes appeared at Trump’s rally in Las Vegas, standing right behind the president and Vice President JD Vance.
Trump has also cracked down on immigration and tried to end the Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship — with an order that’s already being challenged in court. He’s also pushing a series of made-for-TV deportation raids across the country, promoted by allies like daytime television personality Phil McGraw, better known as Dr. Phil, who embedded with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for a sweep in Chicago.
The TV optics are not a coincidence. According to CNN, which cited sources familiar with the operations: “At least two agencies assisting U.S. immigration officials with the sweeps have told personnel to ensure their clothing clearly depicts their respective agency in case they are filmed by journalists.”
On Friday, Trump fired 18 government watchdogs in a late-night purge. He’s also made time to stir up international ire with expansion proposals, from taking control of Greenland and the Panama Canal to threatening to annex Canada and issuing an executive action to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
On Monday, Trump signed several executive orders pertaining to the military, including barring transgender people from enlisting and serving openly and reinstating U.S. service members who were dismissed from the military for refusing to take the Covid vaccine.
So that’s how week one has gone. And it’s all classic Trump. This has always been the strategy, to overwhelm the media and critics with far-right noise. Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon laid it out very clearly all the way back in 2019.
“I said, all we have to do is flood the zone,” Bannon told PBS at the time. “Every day we hit them with three things. They’ll bite on one, and we’ll get all of our stuff done, bang, bang, bang. These guys will never — will never be able to recover.”
That’s still the strategy. And Bannon says it’s going great. “It’s working,” Bannon told The Washington Post. “It’s just stunning to me what they’re doing, and it’s not getting covered because it’s too much. They’re overwhelming the system.”
So yes, they will keep flooding the zone. They’ll do a million crazy things so we can’t focus on any one thing, like whether they are delivering on the core promise they made about lowering costs. But the problem with flooding the zone is that it makes it kind of hard to answer really simple questions.
When CBS News’ “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan asked Vance which of the administration’s flurry of executive orders would lower prices for Americans, the vice president admitted that it was “going to take a little bit of time.” “The president has been president for all of five days,” Vance added. Just for a little perspective, Barack Obama campaigned on ending the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. And his first week in office that’s pretty much what he focused on. Joe Biden vowed to end the pandemic and bring back the economy. He spent his first week in office trying to move that agenda forward. Meanwhile, the guy who promised to lower costs for the American people is busy flooding the zone and hosting House Republicans at his golf resort to discuss how they can cut taxes for rich people. What Trump’s actions over his first seven days in office have told us is that he doesn’t actually care why Americans sent him to the White House. The guy who promised to lower costs is busy flooding the zone and hosting House Republicans at his golf resort to discuss how they can cut taxes for rich people. In a new letter to Trump shared with NBC News, 20 Hill Democrats led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren blasted the president for his twisted priorities. “During your campaign, you repeatedly promised you would lower food prices ‘immediately’ if elected president,” read the letter. “But during your first week of office, you have instead focused on mass deportations and pardoning January 6 attackers.” To be fair, the White House is still working on those tariffs they’re very excited about, which economists across the political spectrum say will actually raise prices. And they’re still working on tax cuts for corporations and billionaires, who definitely aren’t worried about the price of eggs. But hey, at least violent rioters are back on the street, Dr. Phil is in Chicago embedded in an immigration raid, and government watchdogs have been fired. Allison Detzel contributed
Jen Psaki is the host of "The Briefing with Jen Psaki" airing Tuesdays through Fridays at 9 p.m. EST. She is the former White House press secretary for President Joe Biden.
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