Trump Ripped After Backtracking On Promise To Lower Grocery Prices

After pledging for months that he would lower grocery prices, President-elect Donald Trump was criticized after he admitted to Time magazine that it's "very hard" to do so, completely backtracking on his promise.

Trump, who was named the publication's Person of the Year for the second time, stated that one of the key issues Democrats and his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, fail to grasp about the American people is that "they want to be able to buy groceries at a reasonable price and not have to turn off their heat in order to buy two apples."

However, when pressed on whether he could lower grocery costs once in office, Trump acknowledged that he couldn't simply wave a wand to make it happen, even though many of his supporters backed him based on his promises to reduce the cost of living.

He said:

"It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.”

That's a far cry from what he said once during a North Carolina rally earlier in his campaign:

"On my first day back in the Oval Office, I will sign an executive order directing every Cabinet secretary and agency to use every tool and authority at their disposal to defeat inflation and bring consumer prices rapidly down. We'll do it very rapidly."

"When you look at the costs of groceries, the cost of bacon went up four or five times. ... It will be a whole of government effort to raise the standard of living and American life affordable again."

You can hear what he said in the video below.

Or at a rally in Pittsburgh:

"A vote for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper, your paychecks will be higher, your streets will be safer, your communities will be richer, and your future will be brighter than ever before. This will be the Golden Age of America."

You can hear what he said in the video below.

Trump was swiftly called out.

Grocery prices could get much higher during the second Trump administration if Trump follows through with plans to impose hefty tariffs.

In remarks to Meet the Press host Kristen Welker, he said "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," adding "we're going to bring those prices way down."

However, Trump falsely claimed that tariffs "cost Americans nothing." The overwhelming majority of credentialed economists reject the notion that tariffs provide a net benefit to consumers.

Most argue that consumers in the country imposing the tariffs ultimately bear the cost, facing higher prices for imported goods and for domestic products made with foreign-sourced raw materials. Additionally, if the targeted country retaliates with its own tariffs on U.S. goods, American producers can see a decline in exports.

If fully implemented, North American tariffs could significantly impact household expenses. For example, Mexico supplied 69% of U.S. vegetable imports and 51% of fresh fruit imports in 2022, meaning grocery prices could rise sharply. New tariffs on Canada might also increase gasoline prices, particularly in the upper Midwest, which depends heavily on Canadian crude oil.