Trump's claim that Thanksgiving is cheaper this year has several glaring omissions

With Thanksgiving just three weeks away, many families will soon be hitting grocery stores for all the staples — and paying significantly higher prices than in previous years. President Donald Trump is arguing prices are lower in 2025, but he's leaving out significant details.

In a recent post to his Truth Social account, Trump asserted that families will be paying less for Thanksgiving dinner than they did under former President Joe Biden, saying key items will be "25 percent lower ... according to Walmart." He insisted that prices under his administration are "lower than the Democrats on everything, especially oil and gas" and proclaimed "the Democrats 'affordability' issue is DEAD!"

"STOP LYING!!!" He added.

However, Trump's citing of Walmart's prices for Thanksgiving dinner are misleading, according to a Thursday report in NBC News. the network found that while Walmart's 2025 Thanksgiving list is cheaper, it also only contains 23 items. The 2024 list included 29 items, and six of those items — onions, celery, sweet potatoes, chicken broth, poultry seasoning, muffin mix, marshmallows, whipped topping and pecan pie — were left off of this year's list.

Several of the items that didn't make it onto Walmart's 2025 Thanksgiving list include produce items that the U.S. often imports from Canada and Mexico. According to food supply chain technology company Silo, the U.S. imports roughly $384 million worth of onions from Mexico each year, along with $251 million worth of potatoes. Both Canada and Mexico have been hit with tariffs of anywhere from 25 percent to 35 percent.

Food prices have remained stubbornly high despite Trump's claims. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the consumer price index for food at home in U.S. cities on average is 315.489 as of September 2025, compared to 307.201 in September of 2024.

This week's elections were seen as a referendum against the Trump administration's handling of the economy since the president's second term began in January. Democrats who ran on making food, housing and healthcare more affordable enjoyed double-digit margins of victory over their Republican opponents.