|Washington, DC|13 min read
The IRONY is almost painful enough to make you pity the president. Donald Trump won the 2024 election in part by fulminating about inflation, which he blamed on the Democratic Party. He pledged to bring down prices “very, very rapidly” and “Make America Affordable Again”. As Mr Trump was surely aware, that promise was undeliverable; an economy-wide fall in prices is unprecedented outside a deep recession. Besides, since taking office, Mr Trump’s most noteworthy policy on prices has been to raise them further, by adding punishing tariffs to the cost of America’s imports.
This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “Fake blues”
From the January 3rd 2026 edition
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