'Burdened by incoherence': Columnist flags flip-flop on Trump's inflation promise

Donald Trump will not be sworn into office until Jan. 20, but he has been discussing his "day one" goals for months. Thus far, a major concern has been lessening a family's grocery bill burden. Lately, however, his language has changed about the issue.

Steve Benen wrote for Rachel Maddow's MSNBC blog that Trump's big promises have evolved since he clinched the presidency.

Trump spent most of the 2024 campaign blaming high grocery prices on inflation. He still hasn't outlined specific plans to reduce costs.

“I won on groceries," Trump bragged to NBC News "Meet the Press" host Kristen Welker last weekend.

Also Read: Behind Trump’s profoundly weird understanding of money

"Very simple word, groceries. Like almost — you know, who uses the word? I started using the word — the groceries ... I won an election based on that," Trump said.

Trump concluded the statement by promising, “We’re going to bring those prices way down.”

Then something changed, Benen wrote.

Trump was named the TIME Magazine Person of the Year. As part of its profile on him, published Thursday, TIME also published the transcript of its interview with Trump. The magazine asked, “If the prices of groceries don’t come down, will your presidency be a failure?"

"I don’t think so. Look, they got them up. 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," Trump said.

Benen noted for context, "The interview was conducted on Nov. 25. In other words, shortly before Thanksgiving, Trump told Time that it’d be 'very hard' to lower grocery prices, and he wasn’t sure whether he’d be able to achieve that goal."

The president-elect also revealed a new factor to Welker: He “can’t guarantee” that his tariffs will not raise prices rather than helping consumers.

“If you don’t make your product here, then you will have to pay a tariff, a very substantial tariff, when you send your product into the United States,” Trump said in September.

And, while speaking to the Economic Club of Chicago in October, Trump said, "The higher the tariff the more likely it is the company will come into the United States and build a factory in the United States so it doesn't have to pay the tariff."

"That would take many, many, as you know, that would take many, many years," countered Bloomberg News Editor in Chief John Micklethwait.

The reality, however, is that the costs are passed onto the consumer, which will likely send prices soaring, experts have said.

Benen warned that Trump's "position is burdened by incoherence." He noted not much has changed in that respect.

Read the column here.