President Trump has often promised to lower prices for consumer goods as part of his Make America Great Again agenda with a general reduction of prices at the grocery store being one of his key campaign promises as he railed against what he characterized as “Biden’s inflation.”
Since Trump re-entered the Oval Office in January, consumer prices overall have continued to rise, if not exorbitantly, proving largely resistant to Trump’s will. (Trump said about prices after his election victory and before he resumed office: “Look, they got them up. I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.”)
On a positive note for the President, oil and gasoline prices have come down since he entered office and, in May, airline fares, used cars and trucks, new vehicles were all slightly less expensive than a year before. Inflation rose by 2.7 percent in June, which the administration has cited as a victory.
Still with popular items like ground beef up nearly 10%, consumer sentiment about Trump’s handling of the economy and inflation isn’t positive. A recent CBS News/YouGov poll found that 62 percent think “the White House’s policies have driven food and grocery costs up.”
Yet if grocery prices are hard to manipulate, as Trump said, the President continues to promise he will ease prices for Americans elsewhere, notably in the prescription drug sector where this week Trump told congressmembers that he would bring down drug prices “1000%,” before raising that already fantastical number to “1500%.”
Trump: This is somebody nobody else can do. I can get the drug prices down… 1000% 600% 500% 1500%. Numbers that are not even thought to be achievable. pic.twitter.com/NPMMdEZIot
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 23, 2025
(Trump seemed to partly acknowledge the irrationality of these percentages, which if literal would mean the drug companies would pay consumers to take the drugs instead of the other way around. The President said these were “numbers that are not even thought to be achievable.”)
Trump said that he will accomplish this price reduction by using “a certain talent that I have.”
Trump’s claim and its presumption that his negotiation rivals will be compelled to acquiesce to him drew critical comparisons in the comments to his famous boast about his ability to end the Ukraine-Russia war “in 24 hours.”
Addressing that war, which still rages, during a debate with VP Kamala Harris in 2024, Trump contended that he might be able to end the war even before he took office because “I know Zelensky very well, and I know Putin very well. I have a good relationship and they respect your president, OK, they respect me.”
