As a deeply unpopular President Donald Trump becomes even more deeply unpopular, even his top supporters must wonder whether POTUS 47 has all his marbles, or whether he’s just a flat-out liar.
Trump’s latest fabulous claims are that consumer prices are dropping and that gas prices aren’t all that high.
Consumers who stand in line at the grocery store or gas pump disagree, one reason the president’s job approval rating has cratered.
Prices are not dropping. Food prices will continue increasing, the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service (ERS) predicts. The price for a gallon of regular gasoline is about 25 percent higher than last year.
Trump’s Claims
Twice this week, Trump has claimed that the economy is doing well, that prices are plummeting, and that the stock market hit a record high.
“The cost of rent, groceries, and other staples is coming down very fast,” Trump said to a raucous crowd in Las Vegas:
Our costs are coming way down.
In an interview broadcast yesterday, he told Fox News that the stock market is performing at a record pace, retirement plans have doubled and tripled in value, and “we have more people working in the United States today than ever in history.”
“We’re doing an unbelievable job,” Trump continued:
Costs are coming way down. … I inherited very, very high costs. And they’re all coming down now, the food, the groceries, it’s all coming down. We’ve done a great job, you know. I think we should be given an A-plus on the economy.
Speaking to reporters in July, he said that gas prices aren’t all that high. He repeated that claim at the White House this week:
Gas has gone to the lowest level in decades. And you’re seeing $1.99, $1.98, and I saw 1.95 at certain stations.
Reporter: "How much longer will Americans continue to see these high gas prices?"
Trump: "Well, they're not very high….. Everything's doing really well."pic.twitter.com/LYL7cMv7mU
As The New American reported yesterday, the RealClearPolitics average of polls on Trump’s job performance shows that Americans beg to differ. Almost 70 percent of those polled think he’s mishandling inflation, and more than 60 percent think he’s mishandling the economy.
Real Prices
That’s likely because not only are prices not coming down, but they’re increasing.
The Agriculture Department’s ERS reports that the “Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of economy-wide inflation, decreased 0.3 percent from May 2026 to June 2026.” But “it was up 3.5 percent from June 2025.”
“The CPI for all food increased 0.2 percent from May 2026 to June 2026. Food prices in June 2026 were 3.0 percent higher than in June 2025,” it continued.
Worse still, prices will continue increasing:
In 2026, prices for all food are predicted to increase 3.1 percent. … Food-at-home prices are predicted to increase 2.7 percent. … Food-away-from-home prices are predicted to increase 3.5 percent.
In 2027, prices for all food are predicted to increase 3.1 percent. … Food-at-home prices are predicted to increase 2.9 percent. … Food-away-from-home prices are predicted to increase 2.1.
As specifics go, “Beef and veal prices are predicted to increase 10.7 percent in 2026,” the agency reported:
Pork prices rose 0.1 percent from May 2026 to June 2026 and were 2.4 percent higher in June 2026 than in June 2025. Pork prices are predicted to increase 1.6 percent in 2026. …
Poultry prices fell 0.6 percent from May 2026 to June 2026 and were 0.1 percent lower in June 2026 than in June 2025. Poultry prices are predicted to increase 1.0 percent in 2026.
So through the next year, food prices will increase. So says Trump’s own Department of Agriculture.
As for gas, Trump’s seeing it at the pump for less than $2 a gallon simply isn’t possible. A gallon of regular costs a shade more than $4, up from $3.17 a year ago, AAA reports.
When the White House Rapid Response X feed bragged about American oil exports, former GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene angrily replied.
“The national price of gas is $4.10 and diesel is $5.36,” Greene wrote on X:
Your illegal senseless war on Iran is crushing the very people that voted to end foreign wars, lower inflation, and lower the price of gas.
Trump team, posting s**t like this from our multibillionaire POTUS is stupid.
