{"id":83784,"date":"2025-07-22T17:48:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T17:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/83784\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T17:48:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T17:48:20","slug":"inflation-and-gas-prices-down-but-consumers-still-nervous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/83784\/","title":{"rendered":"Inflation and gas prices down, but consumers still nervous"},"content":{"rendered":"

While it is still early goings, the second Trump administration<\/a> crossed the six-month mark on Sunday, and its impact on the economy<\/a> is beginning to show up in data and public polling.<\/p>\n

\u201cSix months is not a long time to have totally revived a major country,\u201d Trump wrote<\/a> on Truth Social to mark the occasion. \u201cOne year ago our Country was DEAD, with almost no hope of revival. Today the USA is the \u2018hottest\u2019 and most respected Country anywhere in the World. Happy Anniversary!\u201d<\/p>\n

White House officials are making that case as well, pointing to a series of metrics it says add up to growth in the present and in the future.<\/p>\n

Trump officials argue that inflation has been tamed and that tariffs are refilling the Treasury Department\u2019s coffers with minimal pain felt by consumers, though other factors still spell out warning signs for Team Trump that could cause trouble ahead.<\/p>\n

The Consumer Price Index has risen at a 2.1% annualized pace since Trump took office, in line with the Federal Reserve\u2019s target 2% rate, and producer prices were flat<\/a> in June. Meanwhile, manufacturing output rose 1.8% between January and June, while customs and tariff revenue have reached $120 billion since Trump took office. <\/p>\n

\u201cDuring his first six months in office, President Trump has repeatedly embarrassed the panicans who predicted doom and gloom, from inflation to recession,\u201d White House spokesman Kush Desai said. \u201cUnder President Trump, Americans have seen an end to Joe Biden\u2019s inflation crisis, multiple expectation-beating jobs reports, record tariff revenue collection, bond and stock market rallies, and historic investment commitments worth trillions that will cement America\u2019s dominance in cutting-edge sectors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House is especially boastful that economists\u2019 warnings about runaway inflation have not materialized so far, and in some cases, import prices have even fallen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But not all signs point upward, and trouble could still be on the horizon. <\/p>\n

Inflation rose<\/a> to 2.7% for the year ending in June in the consumer price index, which was a tick higher than expected and up from 2.4% in May. That is not the direction White House officials want to see the number go, and it could give the Federal Reserve another reason not to cut interest rates at its next meeting, something Trump is pushing hard to make happen.<\/p>\n

And while the White House was pleased that the University of Michigan\u2019s consumer sentiment rose in July, the index collapsed<\/a> following his victory in late 2024 and is only now beginning to recover, up about one point from June.<\/p>\n

Similarly, inflation expectations have fallen steadily since May but are only down in relative terms. Expectations for future inflation stood below 3% early in Trump\u2019s term, then surged to nearly 7% amid news of his \u201cLiberation Day\u201d tariffs, and are now down to 4.4%, according to University of Michigan data cited by Goldman Sachs.<\/p>\n

Still, the worst fears of tariff-fueled inflation have not come to pass, and the latest consumer surveys suggest voters are getting used to life with import duties as a daily reality.<\/p>\n

White House says Trump will \u2018not support amnesty\u2019 when asked about Dignity Act<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The economic outlook could still turn south, but so far things are looking up for Trump, and as an added bonus, gas prices are averaging $3.16 a gallon this summer, according<\/a> to AAA, their lowest level since 2021. According to the White House, it is only getting started.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best is yet to come,\u201d Desai said. \u201cAs the pro-growth policies of The One Big Beautiful Bill and new trade deals kick in, America\u2019s economic resurgence under President Trump will only accelerate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While it is still early goings, the second Trump administration crossed the six-month mark on Sunday, and its…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":83785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,69,79,266,2175,4352,67,132,68,22661,5223],"class_list":{"0":"post-83784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-inflation","12":"tag-tariffs","13":"tag-trump-administration","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-washington-d-c","18":"tag-white-house"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114898148159803030","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}