For those of us who followed the 2024 election, we know that Donald Trump partially ran his 2024 campaign on the promise of lowering grocery prices for everyday Americans.
Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images / SOPA IMAGES / Getty Images
Here are just a few instances on the campaign trail for reference:
On August 15, Trump held a press conference in New Jersey, where he had a table full of groceries beside him. “Grocery prices have skyrocketed; how can a family afford that? So, when I win, I will immediately bring prices down,” Trump said.
On September 23, Trump visited a grocery store in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, and paid for multiple customers’ groceries. “We’ll do that for you from the White House, alright?” Trump said while waving to the crowd.
Here’s Trump saying it loud and clear at a rally on November 4th, 2024:
Even after winning the 2024 election, Trump claimed groceries were the main reason he won. “I won on groceries. A very simple word, groceries,” he said in a Meet The Press interview. “I started using the word. The groceries. 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.”
Now, Trump is going viral for seemingly backtracking on the grocery campaign promise.
In a recent Times Magazine interview, Trump claimed that failing to bring down prices should not mean his presidency was a failure.
Spencer Platt / Getty Images
In the interview, Trump was directly asked: “If the prices of groceries don’t come down, will your presidency be a failure?” To which he responds, “I don’t think so. Look, they got them up. I’d like to bring them down,” Trump responded. “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.”
“But I think that they will. I think that energy is going to bring them down. I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down. You know, the supply chain is still broken. It’s broken. You see it. You go out to the docks, and you see all these containers…” Trump continued, veering off into discussing car prices and electric vehicles.
Spencer Platt / Getty Images
Here’s Trump’s full response:
The internet is reacting to Trump’s statement and it’s exactly how you might expect:
Former Congressman Adam Kinzinger said this in response to Trump’s Time Magazine answer:
“He’s not even in office yet and is ALREADY going back on campaign promises,” this person wrote.
“Trump on Sept. 23: ‘Vote Trump, and your incomes will soar. Your net worth will skyrocket. Your energy costs and grocery prices will come tumbling down,” another person wrote.
“The whole rationale behind trump was ‘yea he’s a criminal, yea he’s corrupt, yea he’s racist, yea he’s a fascist, yea he incited an insurrection, yea he cozies up to dictators BUT AT LEAST!! BUT AT LEAST we had cheap groceries.’ Now he admits that he can’t even do that,” this user wrote.
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.