Last week saw the release of fresh data indicating that inflation had reached a seven-month peak primarily propelled by rising food soar, gas, and housing prices. The price of eggs alone has moved up 15.2 percent from December. But coffee and other items have also become more expensive.
As several pieces hastened to assert: not such a good look for President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a day-one promise of lowering costs and also pledged to lower interest rates, which the Federal Reserve is unlikely to deliver unless inflation is under control. Trump reacted to inflation news by blaming it all on his predecessor. “BIDEN INFLATION UP!” He posted on Truth Social.
At least one survey already suggests consumers aren’t buying this line: the University of Michigan’s survey of consumers for February found they expect inflation to increase, especially due to the tariffs that Trump has slapped on top trading partners. Neither are economists impressed by Elon Musk’s proposal that government spending be drastically slashed to tackle the problem. Even if Musk could cut spending as much as he suggested (doubtful, reports The Economist, which finds much evidence of chaos but not much movement in actual numbers) economists say that would crash the economy.
However, the word of blame appears to be masking a much broader truth about food soar prices right now, namely, that other increases are not random. To put it mildly, inflation overall is a complex matter but for many, there are distinct identifiable reasons behind such price increases and were accurately predicted not just months, but years in advance. Even without any sudden fire for tariffs, Team Trump is poorly placed to tackle these particular price increases. The main reason the conservative model for tackling the high cost of living, which needs to get rid of regulations and cut public spendingn’t that well-suited to take down some of the crises driving these increases.
To quote Jan Dutkiewicz in the New Republic last month, higher egg prices are partly due to the H5N1 bird flu outbreak fueled by generations of negligence in regulating animal farming: “Almost all of the 100 billion eggs produced annually in the United States come from factory farms” and “packing so many nearly genetically identical birds of the same breed into such tight quarters makes factory farms unreasonably prone to disease,” Jan wrote. “Public health experts have been worrying for decades that the next big one is going to come from poultry…(!) One of the lessons we have learned from earlier outbreaks of bird flu and the 2009 swine flu outbreak is that we should have tried to reduce the risk of zoonotic outbreaks from the food soar system-majorly by cutting down on land-clearing crops and moving away from factory farming of animals. The Covid-19 pandemic should have driven that point home with its overwhelming human and economic impact.”
This paragraph interprets Trump’s strategy to lower grocery prices.
Not least Trump refused to acknowledge that it would be hard to get lower grocery prices into effect, but he thinks that the problem can be solved involving a two-part strategy of tackling supply chain issues and upping domestic energy production.
Trump pointed out that farmers utilize a significant amount of energy for planting, growing, and harvesting crops. This use of fuel is only culled further by the arduous task of moving products to foreign stores. Hypothetically speaking, a larger output of fuel on the country’s part will mean lower prices at the pump for consumers there. Most importantly, the savings that a farmer and shipper could grasp should inevitably trickle down to consumers.
Expert Comments on The Trump Plan
Food costs are one of the biggest variables when it comes to inflation and economic volatility. According to the University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey, most American consumers say that inflation would shoot up and inflationary expectations take a leap next year. The February 2025 survey stated that inflation for the current year would mark a spike of 4.3% on further upward revision from 3.3% the previous month.
Actual financial planners canvassed various aspects of Trump’s plan, and here are some of their feedback.
Raising Energy Production
According to Lamar Watson, founder of Dream Financial Planning, increasing energy production does not seem to have any truth to its objective, as he stated, “U.S. energy production is at all-time highs and it hasn’t kept energy prices down. The major oil companies do not want the price to go too low because that would reduce the value of one of their largest assets, proven oil and natural gas reserves. [They] mainly want to maximize shareholder value, not lower prices for consumers.”
