Trump’s dismissal of high inflation isn’t convincing Americans feeling the sting of rising prices

According to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, 62% of respondents disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, which has centred on tariffs. That figure is up from 53% in February. Some 71% of respondents said they are paying more for groceries this year than they were last year. And almost 60% said they are paying more for utilities.

Yet, here is Trump this week: “Our energy costs are way down. Our groceries are way down. Everything is way down. And the press doesn’t report it … When you look at a 25% reduction in cost for Thanksgiving between Biden and me, meaning this administration, that is a tremendous number … So I don’t want to hear about the affordability because right now we are much less.” He repeated the Thanksgiving claim on Friday.

Yet, Trump’s Thanksgiving boast leaves out a key detail. Walmart’s $40 Thanksgiving meal is indeed $15 less than it was last year, but that’s because it contains six fewer items. This is the kind of detail that people who compile grocery lists and calculate costs will notice when they are shopping, even if Trump doesn’t.

Average people will notice that the price of a turkey has soared by 75% since last October, according to the Purdue University College of Agriculture, jumping from 94 cents per pound to $1.71 per pound. They will notice that ground coffee is up 40% over last year. They will notice that ground beef is $6.32 a pound, up 14% from last year, and at a record high, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Overall, grocery prices have increased 2.7% from a year ago, according to the latest Consumer Price Index, and 1.4% since January, though the prices of some goods, including eggs, have come down.

On energy, homes using electricity can expect to pay more this year, according to the US Energy Information Administration, though propane and heating oil customers can expect to pay less.

Trump’s let-them-eat-cake vibe underscores the distance between him and the average American.

Trump has draped the White House in gold and remodelled the Lincoln bathroom in marble. He has destroyed the East Wing to build a gilded ballroom. He threw a Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago that featured women dancing in giant cocktail glasses.

Yet during what is now the longest government shutdown in US history, his administration has fought in court to delay sending food assistance to needy Americans. He has refused to negotiate with Democrats to prevent the Affordable Care Act’s health care premiums from soaring. And he has left thousands of children and families without access to the child care they need through Head Start.

It amounts to a picture of decadent excess as average Americans contend with rising costs and creeping anxiety about unemployment. In October, employers cut more than 150,000 jobs, the biggest reduction for the month in more than two decades, according to a report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

In explaining why Republicans lost last week, Trump blamed the shutdown and his absence from the ballot. But there’s a much more obvious reason: Average Americans feel like they can’t get ahead in this ‘Jenga-tower economy,’ where the elite are doing fine and everyone else is treading water.

Others in the Trump administration seem to get it. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has forecast a 2026 turnaround, with tax rebate cheques and more manufacturing jobs in the offing.

Vice President J.D. Vance posted on social media, reacting to Tuesday’s results, that “We’re going to keep on working to make a decent life affordable in this country.”

And James Blair, White House deputy chief of staff told Politico that Democrats’ focus on affordability worked for them and that Trump will be “very, very focused on prices and cost of living” going forward.

Republicans’ 2026 and 2028 fortunes may hinge on whether Trump heeds them. While the president won’t be on the ballot again, his party, and likely Vance, will be.

If Trump continues to tell people that the economy is better than they think it is, they will have no choice but to conclude that he doesn’t understand their lives and doesn’t care about their hardships. And last week’s election results will end up being a preview of what’s to come. ©Bloomberg

The author is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.