https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-walks-back-prices-down_n_675af8f3e4b04606476ba6cdThe president-elect walked back what was always a wildly unrealistic campaign promise.
President-elect Donald Trump admitted in an interview with Time magazine that it will be difficult for him to reduce consumer prices, contrary to statements he made on the campaign trail this year.
Trump told Time in an hourlong interview for its “Person of the Year” feature that his presidency wouldn’t be a failure if he failed to bring the price of groceries down.
“I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard. But I think that they will,” Trump said, according to the transcript.
Trump is right that it’s very hard to achieve across-the-board price reductions. Curbing inflation is only a matter of slowing the rate of price increases — actual economy-wide price drops typically don’t happen outside of a massive economic downturn.
Nevertheless, Trump repeatedly told voters during the campaign that electing him president would cause prices to tumble.
“Prices will come down,” Trump said during a rally in August. “You just watch: They’ll come down, and they’ll come down fast, not only with insurance, with everything.”
“We will end inflation and make America affordable again, and we’re going to get the prices down, we have to get them down,” Trump said at a rally in September. “It’s too much. Groceries, cars, everything. We’re going to get the prices down.”
“We will cut your taxes and inflation, slash your prices, raise your wages and bring thousands of factories back to America,” Trump said at a Georgia rally in October, reciting a line he used in speeches at several other events.
Trump also specifically promised to get gas prices down: “I will cut your energy prices in half within 12 months.”
