President Donald Trump this week admitted that prices are rising ― but insisted that it’s not his fault despite repeatedly claiming he would bring prices down on his first day in office.
“Inflation is back,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview that aired on Tuesday night. “I’m only here for two and a half weeks… I had nothing to do with it.”
The consumer price index jumped by 3% in January compared to January 2024, according to the Labor Department, a number higher than most analysts expected.
Trump immediately blamed former President Joe Biden despite previously claiming he’d stop inflation within hours of taking office on Jan. 20.
“I will immediately bring prices down starting on day one,” he said on August 15, according to video resurfaced by progressive media outlet MeidasTouch, which also found him saying two days later: “Starting the day I take the oath of office, I will rapidly drive prices down.”
Trump has said it at other points, too, including a claim last summer that “starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again.”
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) has been keeping a list of numerous other times Trump made similar promises.
Once in office, however, Trump quickly backed off the notion that he’d be able to immediately cut inflation and improve the economy and has also admitted that his plan to impose tariffs on other nations could lead to “short-term a little pain” for American consumers.
And when Hannity tried to bring up the economy during a previous interview, Trump didn’t want to talk about it at all.
“Let me get to the economy,” Hannity said during the interview shortly after Trump took office. “I’m running out of time.”
“I don’t care,” Trump fired back as he went on a lengthy rant against Biden. “This is more important.”
Voters, however, don’t seem to agree.
Last week, CNN data reporter Harry Enten said new polls found that a majority of Americans want Trump to focus on inflation or the economy in general, but two-thirds say he hasn’t done so.
And that, he predicted, could cause Trump’s approval ratings to take a dive.
“Let me be perfectly clear: Inflation crushed the Joe Biden presidency, it ate it alive,” Enten said. “If Donald Trump is not careful, inflation will crush his presidency and eat it alive.”
