MaddowBlog-Trump's weird claims about grocery prices are the most self-defeating of his lies

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The president can’t simply wave his hand and Jedi mind-trick consumers into believing the cost of groceries is falling, but he’s giving it a try.

Trump can’t simply wave his hand and Jedi mind-trick consumers into believing that the grocery prices are falling.

But he's clearly giving it a try anyway. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-10-23T19:37:57.184Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-weird-claims-grocery-prices-are-self-defeating-lies-rcna239338

Almost a year later, the president keeps pretending he’s successfully delivered on that promise. The New York Times reported from a Wednesday afternoon event in the Oval Office:

Trump, for the second day in a row, falsely said that grocery prices are ‘way down’ and that inflation was not affecting prices, except for beef. The last publicly available data showed inflation rising to nearly 3 percent in August. In addition to meat, prices also rose for fruits and vegetables, chicken, fish and eggs, new and used cars, and clothing.

It’s not exactly a secret that the president routinely tries to deceive the public, but he’s been especially eager lately to lean into his lies about groceries, repeating the line several times in the past week.

The obvious problem with the claim is that it’s plainly and demonstrably wrong. There are a variety of reasons grocery costs have climbed over the last year, outpacing inflation, but the bottom line remains the same: Trump’s repetition of the lie hasn’t made it true......

Common sense might suggest that any political leader would have the good sense either to avoid the subject or to express some degree of sympathy for angry consumers. But Trump, reluctant to acknowledge his long list of failures, has instead decided to tell grocery-buying Americans not to believe their lying eyes (or wallets).

If that weren’t quite enough, let’s not forget that Trump’s Department of Labor quietly warned that grocery prices are likely to get noticeably worse as the White House’s anti-immigration crackdown continues.

It seems likely the president would respond to those price hikes by insisting that actually prices were falling, but there’s no reason to believe those lies would work.