Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) went after President Trump in a Wednesday Fox News op-ed, accusing him of “making America expensive again.”
“One month into his term, President Trump is making America expensive again, and everyone is feeling the pain,” Coons said in the opinion piece.
“Last year, President Donald Trump ran against inflation, saying when he accepted the Republican presidential nomination last July and throughout his campaign that ‘starting on day one, we will drive down prices and make America affordable again,’” the Delaware senator added.
Trump recently attempted to distance himself from a rise in inflation, saying that the increase had “nothing to do” with him coming back to the White House.
The president pointed to former President Biden as being responsible for inflation and criticized what he framed as reckless spending under the previous president.
“Inflation is back. No, think of it: Inflation’s back,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity last week. “And they said, ‘Oh, Trump,’ and I had nothing to do with that.”
“These people have run the country. They spent money like nobody has ever spent. … They were given $9 trillion to throw out the window — 9 trillion,” the president continued.
In his Fox News op-ed, Coons said following “one month, we’re beginning to see the direction Trump is taking our economy, and it’s not pretty.”
“Groceries are more expensive than ever. The price of eggs is setting new records every day. Inflation is back over 3% for the first time in eight months. The nonpartisan experts at the Federal Reserve expect inflation to keep rising,” he added.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, the Biden administration was often blamed by Trump for high grocery prices, with the price increases for bacon, cereal, crackers and other items being slammed by Trump on the campaign trail.
However, Trump in an interview from December said he doesn’t think his presidency will be a failure if prices of food don’t drop.
“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. I think that energy is going to bring them down. I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down,” Trump said in the interview.
In an emailed statement to The Hill, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt argued that Trump in just one month “has already accomplished more than most presidents do in their entire term as he makes good on his promise to usher in the New Golden Age of America.”
“President Trump has taken historic action to secure the southern border, unleash America’s energy dominance, protect American workers, and re-establish American strength abroad,” she added.
