DISCLAIMER: This article was first published in February 2025
A major reason why Donald Trump is president today is that inflation was very high in the early part of the Biden presidency, and that even when it got lower, certain products remained stubbornly expensive.
It’s not always easy for presidents to lower prices, and Trump never really articulated how exactly he would do so.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt demonstrated that in a press briefing on Wednesday.
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“How long will it take to cycle through and get some of the actual prices that Americans are paying to come down?” a reporter, Fox Business’ Edward Lawrence, asked Leavitt.
Asked when prices will actually start coming down, a flustered Karoline Leavitt says, “prices at the store and at the grocery pump?” and provides a non-answer pic.twitter.com/8eC2Gy38Vx
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 5, 2025
“Across the board? Sure. Well, the President is doing everything he can obviously to reduce the cost of living crisis in this country as quickly as possible,” she answered. “That — that’s why he signed a litany of executive orders across the board in the first couple of weeks here; he declared a national energy emergency. He committed to cutting 10 regulations for every new one on the book.”
Then, Lawrence asked her again about the timeframe.
“Is it months? Is it a year? Will Americans have the patience to wait for it?”
“I don’t have a timeline,” she said, “but the president is doing everything that he possibly can to reduce the cost of living for Americans at home.”
Ironically, the phrase “the President is doing everything he can to reduce prices for American families” was said out loud at a White House briefing not too long ago—in 2022, when then Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said just that from the White House podium on June 22, 2022. The truth is that complaining about high prices is easy when a party is out of office, but doing something about it is much harder.
Well, you wanted cheap eggs… https://t.co/rq1NVYSwJS
— Andrew (@coffeeperc) February 6, 2025
Egg prices continue to rise, especially in light of the current bird flu problem. There was even, in Pennsylvania, a heist of 100,000 eggs this week.
“In my career, I’ve never heard of 100,000 eggs being stolen. This is definitely unique,” the Pennsylvania State Police’s Megan Frazer told the Associated Press.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
