If you have spent enough time on social media or take an interest in American politics, then you are probably more than acquainted with President Trump’s personality. From his campaign rhetoric before he was inaugurated, proclaiming he would put an end to the Ukraine conflict before taking office, to his State of the Union speech in late February, where he claimed he had inherited “a nation in crisis,” President Trump loves to speak in hyperbole and is often his own worst enemy when legacy media counters his exaggerations.
During President Trump’s second term, Democrats have enjoyed endless soundbites and clips of the President’s former claims to “immediately bring prices down, starting on day one” and that “inflation is plummeting” under his administration. Trump has refuted Democrats’ messaging on affordability by calling it a “hoax” that is perpetrated by the left-wing media. Now, with the upcoming midterm elections this November, and a string of Democratic election victories across the country, the issues of the economy and, more specifically, affordability have been brought to the forefront of political discussions.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the consumer price index, which measures inflation, rose 2.7% in 2025, outpacing the Federal Reserve’s 2% benchmark. There have been substantial inflationary fears in Trump’s presidency with his obsession over tariffs, the recent Iran conflict and America’s all-time high level of consumer debt. So why has our President kept ignoring the obvious?
Policies, such as tariffs, that the second Trump presidency has championed seem to be contradictory when tackling inflation, and the short term rise in energy prices certainly does not help prices come down. Trump’s framing of affordability as a hoax may be unhelpful and misleading, but the President is not denying the existence of the problem; he is rather placing blame on the former Biden administration for constructing the predicament in the first place.
To understand the last few years of the United States’ economy, defined as a condition called “stagflation,” we first need to know where the problem began: government spending. High quantities of government spending is problematic for the economy because it “crowds out” private investment and makes capital harder to borrow and repay with higher interest rates. This reduces employment, consumption and investment.
When President Biden was first inaugurated, the country was still trudging through the COVID-19 pandemic. In an attempt to take advantage of the Federal Reserve’s near zero interest rate and expand the United States’ social safety net programs, the Democrat controlled congress, along with the President, passed trillions of dollars in legislation to help people financially navigate the uncertainty brought upon by the pandemic. The government appropriated 1.9 trillion to the American Rescue Act, which provided $1,400 in stimulus packages to individuals, extended enhanced unemployment benefits and funded local governments and higher education.
On paper, this legislation is indisputably amazing for citizens, but these benefits incentivize individuals to stay unemployed longer. When combined with state benefits, many earned more than what they would have if they worked a traditional job. Employers were forced to increase pay to compete with unemployment benefits, which saw more people spend money they otherwise would not have had, elevating the prices of everyday goods. The Inflation Reduction Act, a deceptive name, lowered healthcare premiums for people on Obamacare and Medicaid subsidies.
While helping the financially depressed and those who cannot afford healthcare is a noble cause, social government programs include drawbacks that have broader consequences on the economy. The result of the Biden spending spree resulted in $4.7 trillion added to the country’s total debt and a 40-year inflation high that peaked at 9.1% in June of 2022, resulting in a depreciated dollar. Printing trillions created an abundance of cash that chased too few goods in the economy, sequentially driving up the CPI 21% during Biden’s four years in office. This means a dollar bill was worth 21% less at the start of 2025 than it was at the start of 2021. To put this number into perspective, across Trump’s first four years as President, consumer goods only increased 7.5%, a signal of a healthy economy.
Because the Democrats flooded the economy with cash, sectors of the economy that Americans spend the most on, like healthcare and housing, outpaced inflation, ultimately cratering Americans’ buying power and having them spend a higher percentage of their paycheck on those necessities.
Spending alone was not the only cause of this issue. Inflation under Biden would not have been as much of a problem if real wages continued to increase, offsetting rising costs. But in the first two years of the Biden administration, wage growth declined and did not recover to pre-pandemic levels until September of 2024. When confronted on the issue by the media, Democrats, including the White House, tried covering up their fiscal irresponsibility, attributing the cost of living to “corporate greed” and “price gouging.”
Democrats blame capitalism and describe corporations as money-hungry caricatures, but never attribute failures to their own policy decisions.
An important distinction when discussing this issue is the contrast between affordability and inflation. Inflation, which is the rate at which prices increase, means that prices continue to climb no matter the percent increase. So when reports show that inflation is falling, that does not indicate prices are decreasing, rather prices are getting more expensive at a slower rate. This is why so many Americans do not feel financial relief despite reports of a stronger economy – because wage growth is still catching up to current prices.
The relationship between the economy and politics is often slow moving, which is why President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were unable to tilt public perception in their favor during their tenure in office. Although the economy was superficially strong in 2024, voters had already associated the high cost of living with their administration. Trump, avoiding the same trap his predecessors fell into, attempts to deny the problem altogether, but there’s only so much rebuttal the president can make before the public turns on him, too, even if their grievances are misguided. Although it is convenient for voters to blame President Trump for disappointing economic results, strictly criticizing his administration lacks accuracy and deprives the necessary critical thought of a complex issue.
To quote world-renowned German economist, Rudiger Dornbusch: “In economics, things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.” In this case, high inflation is easier to initiate than it is to curtail. This highlights the great irony of affordability and American politics in general. A president struggling to grapple with a persistent issue that affects the country as a whole, scrutinized by the same people and former administration that voted for it to happen in the first place.
