Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / 'Groceries are way down' Trump repeatedly dismissed concerns about affordability

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'Groceries are way down' Trump repeatedly dismissed concerns about affordability · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: White House officials are strategizing on how President Trump should
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: address the issue of affordability. Remember, back when he was
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  Speaker 1: a candidate, Trump repeatedly vowed to make America affordable again.
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  Speaker 1: But now as president, he's repeatedly dismissed affordability as a problem,
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  Speaker 1: insisting that the economy is great. Sources tell CNN the
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  Speaker 1: Trump's advisors are telling him that is a bad idea,
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  Speaker 1: that he should not downplay the fact that Americans feel
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  Speaker 1: squeezed by rising prices. They've even discussed having him travel
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  Speaker 1: the country to give economy focused speeches. So what are
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  Speaker 1: the numbers and the data actually show. CNN's Daniel Dale
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  Speaker 1: is here with a fact check. Daniel, let's go overall
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  Speaker 1: prices first. Here is what President Trump has said.
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  Speaker 2: If you look at affordability, in which they campaigned on,
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  Speaker 2: they lied because they talked about all.
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  Speaker 3: Prices are up.
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  Speaker 4: No, No, prices are down under the Trump administration, and
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  Speaker 4: they're down substantially. The reason that I do want to
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  Speaker 4: talk about affordability is because everybody knows that it's far
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  Speaker 4: less expensive Trump than it was on the Sleepy Joe Bidersuer,
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  Speaker 4: and the prices are way down.
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  Speaker 1: Daniel, what do the numbers say.
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  Speaker 3: None of that is true.
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  Speaker 5: For US, prices are up during this administration. There has
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  Speaker 5: been inflation every month of this administration. Moreover, the pace
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  Speaker 5: of inflation has accelerated now for five consecutive months. It
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  Speaker 5: hit three percent in September, So prices in September were
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  Speaker 5: three percent higher than they were a year prior, and
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  Speaker 5: there were one point seven percent higher than they were
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  Speaker 5: in January, the month of President Trump returned to office.
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  Speaker 5: Now he keeps saying that every single price is down.
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  Speaker 5: I think the overall number show that is clearly not true.
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  Speaker 5: And I think Americans know that. If you look at
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  Speaker 5: the CPI Consumer Price Index data, it'll show you that
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  Speaker 5: thousands of individual products have increased in price since since
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  Speaker 5: President Trump returned to the White House.
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  Speaker 1: Here's what he said about grocery store prices.
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  Speaker 3: Beef.
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  Speaker 4: We have to get down, but we've got prices way down.
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  Speaker 1: You think prices are coming down from.
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  Speaker 3: This leave that.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think they're coming down, but I think they're
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  Speaker 4: down already.
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  Speaker 5: The groceries are way down.
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  Speaker 2: Everything is way down. And the press doesn't.
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  Speaker 4: Reported the press reports whatever the.
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  Speaker 3: Con people say.
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  Speaker 4: You know, I call the Democrats con men and women
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  Speaker 4: they make up numbers.
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  Speaker 1: Just to be clear, Daniel, what are grocery prices like
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  Speaker 1: and are these numbers made up?
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  Speaker 3: They are made up?
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  Speaker 5: Worth So, grocery prices as well are up since President
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  Speaker 5: Trump returned to office. They're up one point four percent.
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  Speaker 5: Since January, They're up two point seven percent compared to
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  Speaker 5: a year prior. Grocery prices are up in five of
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  Speaker 5: the six overarching categories of products that are tracked by
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  Speaker 5: the Consumer Price Index. The President Trump keeps saying it's
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  Speaker 5: only beef that's up. Yes, beef has experienced one of
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  Speaker 5: the biggest increases, but it's far from only beef. Again,
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  Speaker 5: far rough products in the grocery I have increased then decreased.
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  Speaker 5: Other big risers include coffee and bananas, two products that
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  Speaker 5: are heavily imported in the US and thus are subject
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  Speaker 5: to President Trump's major tariffs on those items now.
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  Speaker 1: The President also frequently touts energy prices as going down.
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  Speaker 1: What does the cost of gas look like?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, so he said two things last week on this
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  Speaker 5: subject that weren't true either.
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  Speaker 3: So he said that gas is just a bit.
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  Speaker 5: Above two dollars. The national average is above three dollars,
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  Speaker 5: is about a three oh seven three toho eight at
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  Speaker 5: this moment. Second of all, he said the gas prices
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  Speaker 5: have plummeted to the lowest level in two decades. First
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  Speaker 5: of all, they haven't plummeted as of today. They are
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  Speaker 5: just about identical to what they were a year ago
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  Speaker 5: today about three dollars and eight cents according to Triple A.
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  Speaker 5: Maybe they've increased a fraction of a cent if you
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  Speaker 5: go to multiple decimal places, but at least near identical.
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  Speaker 5: And second, it's clearly not the lowest in two decades.
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  Speaker 5: Not only was it lower during the course the COVID
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  Speaker 5: pandemic when demand crash.
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  Speaker 3: Not only was it lower at various points in.
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  Speaker 5: The twenty tens in the two thousands, it was also
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  Speaker 5: lower on various days this year in January under President Biden.
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  Speaker 5: So both parts of that claim just not true, just
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  Speaker 5: like most of President Trump's claims about prices these days
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  Speaker 5: are just not true either.
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  Speaker 1: Daniel Dale, thank you so much for walking us through
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  Speaker 1: that fact check.
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  Speaker 3: Our money lead.
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  Speaker 4: Now, with the federal government shutdown, seemingly on the verge
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  Speaker 4: of ending, seemingly Wall Street closed last hour, with the
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  Speaker 4: Dow above forty eight thousand for the very first time,
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  Speaker 4: the SAP five hundred showing some minor gains, the NASDAK dropping.
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  Speaker 4: Joining us now to discuss all of this. Financial journalist
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  Speaker 4: Andrew Ross Sorkin you may recognize him from CNBC, and he,
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  Speaker 4: of course just wrote a new book getting critically acclaimed
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  Speaker 4: great reviews. It's called nineteen twenty nine Inside the Greatest
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  Speaker 4: Crash in Wall Street History and How It's shattered a nation. Andrew,
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  Speaker 4: your book details the US economy before the nineteen twenty
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  Speaker 4: nine market crash leading to the depression. You warn in
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  Speaker 4: your view, today's stock market mirrors conditions in twenty nine.
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  Speaker 4: So do you think we're indeed on track for some
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  Speaker 4: sort of crash and how soon?
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  Speaker 6: I don't know if we have to have a crash
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  Speaker 6: per se, but I do think that there's a lot
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  Speaker 6: of things going on in the economy today that look
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  Speaker 6: a lot like the late monies, potentially look like the
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  Speaker 6: late nineties, and so invariably that means that we're likely
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  Speaker 6: to have some form of a correction. How big a correction,
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  Speaker 6: how deep? Is always the big question. And when it's
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  Speaker 6: one thing to be a Cassandra and say this is
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  Speaker 6: all going to happen, it's another to be able to
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  Speaker 6: say it's gonna happen tomorrow. I don't think it's going
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  Speaker 6: to happen necessarily tomorrow. I think actually this could play
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  Speaker 6: out for a little bit longer, in part because so
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  Speaker 6: much money is coursing through our economy in the flow
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  Speaker 6: of artificial intelligence investments, and that doesn't seem like it's
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  Speaker 6: going to abate for any time. The real question, of course,
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  Speaker 6: is you know whether at some point all these folks
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  Speaker 6: that are pouring all this money into this space can
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  Speaker 6: continue to afford to do that, and that's when the
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  Speaker 6: rubber potentially could meet the road.
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  Speaker 4: So ten days ago I interviewed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessend
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  Speaker 4: and bescent and I asked if he thinks that we
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  Speaker 4: are heading for a recession.
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  Speaker 3: Here's part of what he had to say.
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  Speaker 2: I think that there are sectors of the economy that
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  Speaker 2: are in recession, and the FED has caused a lot
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  Speaker 2: of distributional problems with their policies. If the FED brings
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  Speaker 2: down mortgage rates, then they can end this housing recession.
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  Speaker 3: What are your.
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  Speaker 6: Thoughts, Look, I don't know if we're headed towards a recession.
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  Speaker 6: I assume he was also referring to potentially what the
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  Speaker 6: government shutdown could do now that that is hopefully going
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  Speaker 6: to be over soon and fixed. I don't know if
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  Speaker 6: we get into a recession. I do think we have
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  Speaker 6: a real conundrum, and he of course would like the
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  Speaker 6: administration with like lower interest rates. The conundrum is we
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  Speaker 6: have an employment picture that's getting weaker. That part is
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  Speaker 6: demonstrably to true, and so you'd think you'd want the
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  Speaker 6: Federal Reserve to try to prop that up by raising
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  Speaker 6: by lowering rates. But it's not clear that that would
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  Speaker 6: actually do the trick in this case, because the reason
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  Speaker 6: we're losing jobs is much more complicated than that. And
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  Speaker 6: at the same time, you have inflation, which has been persistent.
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  Speaker 6: Now the inflation picture is coming down a little bit,
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  Speaker 6: there's sort of accelerating, but prices are still elevated, and
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  Speaker 6: especially in food and another a lot of items that
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  Speaker 6: we all know about. When you go to the store,
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  Speaker 6: you know that they're more expensive than they used to be.
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  Speaker 6: And so if you wanted to get that problem, you'd
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  Speaker 6: want to raise interest rates to push the bread. So
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  Speaker 6: the problem is you're sort of stuck if you're the
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  Speaker 6: Federal Reserve and you're stuck to some degree for this
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  Speaker 6: administration in this moment, A.
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  Speaker 4: New eightp pole suggests that sixty seven percent of the
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  Speaker 4: American people are not happy with President Trump's handling of
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  Speaker 4: the economy. The President Trump has said that these poles
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  Speaker 4: are fake. He claims that prices are way down. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 4: obviously inflation is up, most grocery prices are up.
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  Speaker 3: Fewer first time home buyers.
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  Speaker 4: The President's floating this fifty year mortgage as an option
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  Speaker 4: to save money. What is your response to this fifty
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  Speaker 4: year mortgage idea?
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  Speaker 6: Look, I mean, conceptually, the argument is that it should
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  Speaker 6: allow people who can't afford a home to get into
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  Speaker 6: a home at a lower monthly cost. The conundrum is
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  Speaker 6: it doesn't really lower the price of housing right now.
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  Speaker 6: What we have in this the problem we have in
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  Speaker 6: this country is a supply problem. That is the fundamental problem.
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  Speaker 6: And the other problem is if you extend out that loan.
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  Speaker 3: For fifty years.
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  Speaker 6: First of all, there's a lifetime issue, but beyond that,
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  Speaker 6: there's just the fundamental question of when the fifty years
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  Speaker 6: are up. Or even if you were to own the
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  Speaker 6: home for thirty years, it could be that the first
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  Speaker 6: twenty or thirty years you're getting no value from all
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  Speaker 6: the money that you're putting in because it's basically just
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  Speaker 6: interest payments, so it doesn't really change the dynamic of
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  Speaker 6: the housing situation and potentially could create a whole bunch
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  Speaker 6: of other problems.
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  Speaker 3: Andrew Ross Sorkin, thanks so much.
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  Speaker 4: It was fun to be able to pick your brain
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  Speaker 4: and steal you from CNBC for a second.
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  Speaker 3: Jacobs once again. His new book. His new book.
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  Speaker 4: It's critically acclaimed, it's selling all over the place. It's
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  Speaker 4: called nineteen twenty nine Inside the greatest crash in Wall
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  Speaker 4: Street History and how it chattered a nation. The Great
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  Speaker 4: Aaron Andrew, We're sorry, the great Andrew Ross Sarkin, thank
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  Speaker 4: you so much. Great to have you on the show.
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  Speaker 4: Everybody go buy his book.