By Chris Walker
This article was originally published by Truthout
Sixty percent of voters believe that Trump is making the state of the economy sound better than it is, polling shows.
President Donald Trump is continuing to peddle the baseless claim that his administration is delivering “economic relief” for Americans — even as prices of consumer goods are rising and polling shows that a majority of Americans are concerned about food and travel costs this Thanksgiving.
On Monday, the White House announced that the “worst inflation crisis” from the Biden administration is over — despite the fact that the year-to-year inflation rate is currently higher under Trump than it was during the last year of Biden’s presidency.
“As millions of American families prepare to gather for Thanksgiving, they’re seeing a dose of the economic relief President Donald J. Trump is fighting to deliver,” the statement from the White House said, adding that there are “lower gas prices in many states and a decrease in the cost of Thanksgiving dinner.”
There are reasons to believe the administration’s rosy assessments are unfounded, however.
On gas prices, the White House report doesn’t cite national numbers, but rather numbers from specific geographic areas that have seen minimal improvements in pricing. For example, it cites gas prices in San Antonio, Texas, where gas is only six cents cheaper than it was the year prior, according to AAA. (Indeed, for the state of Texas overall, gas is only down by an average of a single penny, compared to numbers from this time in 2024.)
Meanwhile, examining the price of consumer gasoline across the country overall shows a slight increase in prices, of 1.6 cents on average, rather than a decrease.
The change in pricing is more pronounced when it comes to the cost of food. Analyses are mixed when it comes to the price of Thanksgiving dinner, with many experts saying it depends on what families want to include in their meals. But that hasn’t stopped Trump from bragging that prices will be down, citing Walmart’s annual “Thanksgiving meal” plan, which is cheaper than last year’s.
The main reason for Walmart’s Thanksgiving meal being less expensive this year, however, is because this year’s package includes significantly fewer items than in 2024. In fact, an analysis of the price of the turkey shows that it’s 9 cents per pound more expensive overall.
Other analyses, including one from Groundwork Collaborative, The Century Foundation, and AFT, show that the price of a Thanksgiving meal will be 9.8 percent higher than it was in 2024, with side items driving much of the increase.
Onions, for example, are 56 percent costlier than they were last Thanksgiving, the study found, while cranberry sauce is up by more than 22 percent. Even the prices of food prep items are rising, such as the cost of aluminum foil, which has gone up by 40 percent this year.
The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) own numbers show that prices swelled in September, growing faster than the national inflation rate overall. And the Economic Research Service (ERS) predicts prices for food will be up by 3 percent by the end of 2025, and rising by 2.7 percent by the end of 2026 — a much higher increase than the 2.3 percent increase seen in 2024.
Polling shows that Americans are indeed concerned about prices this Thanksgiving, both for food and for travel. A recent Data for Progress poll finds that 65 percent of Americans are stressed this year about food and travel costs, with only 33 percent saying they are not. Asked whether this year’s meal will be easier or more difficult to afford compared to last year’s, a majority of respondents (53 percent) said it will be harder to pay for this time around.
As a result of rising costs, 37 percent of Americans are buying fewer items for Thanksgiving this year, the survey found, while 24 percent said they are planning to have smaller gatherings. More than 1 in 10 Americans say they are skipping the holiday altogether due to affordability concerns.
Other polling shows that Americans are frustrated with growing costs under Trump, who campaigned last year on lowering consumer costs, but retracted his promise to lower grocery costs weeks after winning the election.
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly claimed that grocery store prices are going down when they are not. Another recent poll, a CBS News/YouGov survey, shows that the vast majority of Americans see through the president’s falsehoods.
Per that poll, only 27 percent of voters believe Trump is accurately describing the economic situation, while 60 percent say that Trump is making the economy sound better than it is. Americans also rate the economy as doing worse under Trump — at the start of the year, only 38 percent of Americans said the economy was doing “good.” However, that number has dropped to just 32 percent in this most recent survey.
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