US President-Elect Donald Trump said, more than once during his campaign, that he would lower food prices. Now, apparently backing away from the promise, Trump has admitted, it’s ‘very hard’ to force food prices down…
Donald Trump addressed high good prices during a campaign
news conference last august at his Bedminster Golf Club…
It’s not the only campaign promise Donald Trump is apparently walking back – even before he of-ficially takes office. But it’s an important one even he claims won him a lot of votes…
‘I won on groceries’
“I won on the border, and I won on groceries,” Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker last week on Meet the Press . “Very simple word, 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, and I won an election based on that. We’re going to bring those prices way down.”
He also made a point of blaming the Biden-Harris administration for the surge in grocery prices – and inflation in general – over its 4 years in power.
The concept of his plan…
Trump told TIME magazine, in a recent interview: “I think that energy is going to bring them down,” he asserted, without explaining how that would work. “I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down. You know, the supply chain is still broken. It’s broken,” Trump said.
Experts disagree
But economists warn that – in spite of Trump’s promises to fight inflation – prices will go nowhere but up once he’s back in the White House. That’s mainly due to his plan to impose crushing tariffs on all imported goods, including especially high 25 percent surcharges on Canadian and Mexican goods.
Tariffs were the backbone of Trump’s campaign economic platform. And they’ve so far been one cam-paign ‘promise’ he’s not only not backed off on, but actually doubled-down on.
No guarantee
Now, Trump’s bottom line on food prices is, there’s ‘no guarantee’ he’ll succeed in lowering them. When asked point-blank, by Welker, whether he could guarantee prices wouldn’t rise because of tariffs, Trump would only say:
“I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow,” he said, claiming that before the coronavirus pandemic broke out, he had engineered the, “greatest economy in the history of our country.” Which is another point on which many economists don’t agree with him.
My take
When you look at the big picture it’s clear that Donald Trump is facing what the pundits call ‘strong headwinds’ to implementing his plans for a new, ‘Trump Party’ administration. And I think lowering food prices will end up much farther down on his real priority list than he says it will…
~ Maggie J.