In a baffling address that even avowed allies called “pointless” on Wednesday night, President Donald Trump bragged that he was “bringing those high prices down” and “bringing them down very fast.”
There’s just one teeny, tiny problem with that: Reality.
The actual story of food prices and affordability in 2025 doesn’t really line up with Trump’s claims, according to November data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released on Thursday morning.
The BLS report found that “the index for food increased 2.6% over the last year,” with the index for meat, poultry, fish and eggs rising 4.7%, nonalcoholic beverages rising 4.3%, cereals and bakery products increasing by 1.9%, and fruit and vegetables rising 0.1% over the last 12 months,
The index for dairy and related products did decrease 1.6% over the same period, per the report.
As CNBC reported, there are also clear increases on essentials that Americans are absolutely feeling: The inflation rate for uncooked beef roasts was about 21% for November, and coffee and banana prices were up 19% and 7% from the previous year.
This new data builds on what consumers have been expressing throughout the year. Data from a Politico poll conducted by Public First from November found that 50% of Americans said that they struggle to pay for food.
The Century Foundation also found earlier this month that among 1,426 registered voters they surveyed, 2 in 3 were switching to cheaper groceries or buying less food to make up for the costs. This disproportionately affected working-class Americans, who have lower salaries on average.
“Even more concerning is the number of people skipping meals, with over one-third of respondents (34%) saying they skipped a meal in the past year,” the TCF report stated. “This includes 44% of Black Americans (compared to 32 percent of white respondents) and 54% of adults under age 30.”
The Affordability Crisis Is Real, Whether Trump Likes It Or Not
In the last year, Trump’s thoughts on the affordability crisis have varied: While grocery prices were a central part of his campaign, he referred to the crisis as a “hoax” on different occasions while also taking credit for solving it.
“Walmart just announced that Prices for a Thanksgiving Dinner is now down 25% since under Sleepy/Crooked Joe Biden, in 2024,” he posted on Truth Social in November, claiming credit for seeming improvements around Thanksgiving costs (that was mostly just a specific Walmart deal). “AFFORDABILITY is a Republican Stronghold. Hopefully, Republicans will use this irrefutable fact!”
Yet, he’s also continued to say that Democrats are “making up” the numbers.
“I don’t want to hear about the affordability because right now, we’re much less,” Trump previously told reporters in November, reportedly “irate” that Democrats were largely seen as owning the issue of affordability more effectively than Republicans. “Our energy costs are way down. Our groceries are way down,” he continued. “Everything is way down, and the press doesn’t report it. The press reports whatever the con people say.”
Despite the narrative Trump has touted — that this is an issue he has already fixed and the press is simply not talking about it — reports show that Americans aren’t quite buying that line.
That aforementioned Politico poll also found that most Americans (55%) hold the Trump administration responsible for the increase in costs — including 22% of his own voters.
Though his track record for dissent among his ranks is to call them “stupid” or “foolish” for not going along with whatever he says, he can’t gaslight Americans out of the reality they face at the grocery checkout line.
