Mass. Sen. Warren slams Trump for not lowering prices. What does the data say?
Eight months into his second term, President Donald Trump has yet to fulfill a key campaign pledge to bring down prices for American consumers, and that will make affordability a key campaign issue in the 2026 midterms, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Sunday.
"The cost of housing is up. The cost of health care is up. The cost of groceries is up. The cost of utilities is up," Warren said during an appearance on WBZ-TV's "Keller @Large" program .
"In other words, Donald Trump not only hasn't delivered on the promise to lower costs, but what we're seeing is that costs are up, up, up," the Cambridge lawmaker said.
Republican Trump made lowering costs a key argument for his second White House campaign in 2024.
In reality, however, the president (no matter his party) has little practical ability to make that a reality. But the president can encourage an environment where that happens.
"If it was so simple, they would just do it," Norbert Michel, a vice president at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, said of lowering prices during an interview with Politico earlier this yea r.
Meanwhile, one gauge of inflation showed prices increasing at their fastest rate in five months in July. That's an early sign that businesses are starting to pass tariff-related costs along to consumers, The New York Times reported .
Democrats, Warren among them, have repeatedly hammered Trump for failing to meet that campaign benchmark and for his trade policies.
But what do the data say? Is Warren's criticism on the mark? Here's a quick check of economic realities on the ground.
Claim: Trump hasn't lowered grocery prices
Fact:Remember the Great Egg Panic of 2024? Trump vowed to lower prices on a product that suddenly became a stand-in for the national mood.
It took a while, but egg prices have, indeed, dropped. Egg prices tumbled by 12.7% in April, with the cost of a dozen large white-shell eggs clocking in at $3.30 on average, CNN reported in May , citing U.S. Agriculture Department data.
But:Americans are still paying higher prices for food, overall, than they were a year ago, CNBC reported Sunday . Prices are up 2.9% over last year, that's above the Federal Reserve's target inflation rate of 2%, the cable channel reported.
Food prices also are among the most volatile, fluctuating with market conditions, weather and climate changes, and disease outbreaks.
For instance, droughts in the Great Plains have pushed up beef costs , while extreme weather in Brazil and Vietnam have reduced coffee harvests , according to CNBC.
And, here's eggs again: Another wave of avian flu in the U.S. has cut into egg-laying flocks . Meanwhile, poor sugar harvests in India and Thailand have tightened supplies , and that's driven up prices for candies and sweets, the cable channel reported.
And while not all food prices are rising as quickly, people are still feeling the pinch from cumulative inflation. Since 2020, food costs have increased 26%, according to Consumer Price Index data .
"The level of inflation has slowed from the peaks of two years ago, but food prices remain high compared to before the pandemic," Chedly Louis, the vice president of corporate finance at Moody's Ratings, told CNBC.
Claim: Trump hasn't brought down utility costs
Fact:If you've opened your utility bill in Massachusetts at any point over the last six months, it's almost guaranteed that you've winced at what you've seen there.
And Bay Staters aren't the only ones: Nationwide, electricity prices have increased more than twice as fast as the overall cost of living in the last year, NPR reported over the weekend .
And here in the Bay State, residents who get their power from Eversource and National Grid can both expect to see slight increases in their bills .
Claim: Trump hasn't brought down housing prices
This one is a toughie, since the demand for housing now far outstrips the supply, and local rules and federal regulations also make it hard to build new homes, apartment complexes and other options.
Which is not to say that policymakers in Washington and Beacon Hill aren't trying.
Last month, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee unanimously approved a bipartisan bill that aims to ease construction and increase the stock of affordable housing nationwide. Warren, the panel's ranking Democrat, and its chairperson, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., led the charge on the legislation.
Last year, Massachusetts lawmakers passed, and Democratic Gov. Maura Healey signed, a $5.1 billion bond bill that seeks to address housing prices in the Bay State, which are among the highest in the nation.
A year after the law went on the books, the state is starting to see some benefit from the law , according to Healey administration data.
All that said, it remains true that the median price of a home nationwide, now more than $410,800, is more than 10 times higher than it was 50 years ago, according to Yahoo Finance.
During her appearance on WBZ-TV on Sunday, Warren pointed to that bipartisan Senate bill, saying its success could point the way to future efforts.
"And my hope is, if it proves its merit, there'll be a lot more money in the future," she said.
So far, there also hasn't been much movement from the White House on housing, which has focused on immigration and other issues.
Claim: Trump hasn't addressed health care costs
Fact:There's no getting around this one: The United States has one of the highest health care costs in the world.
Spending reached $4.9 trillion in 2023, which came out to around $14,750 per person, according to an analysis by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation . The average, per person cost in other developed countries is about half that, the foundation's analysis showed.
The "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that Congress passed, and Trump signed, last month makes cuts and changes across the health care sector, which will "threaten coverage, increase health care costs, and impose new barriers to care for millions of Americans," according to the left-leaning Center for American Progress .
The bulk of those changes, however, are not set to take effect until after the 2026 midterm elections, making their actual impact tougher to forecast.
What's next?
Speaking to WBZ-TV on Sunday, Warren said Democrats will focus on affordability as they look ahead to the 2026 midterm elections, where control of the U.S. House will be on the line.
This year's mayoral races in New York City and in Boston, where affordability has emerged as a campaign issue, could prove a key early test of the effectiveness of that message.
"So the idea is to say 'I'm going to get out there and do what I can to actually lower costs for families," Warren told the station. "I think people are tired of hearing there's nothing we can door the billionaires wouldn't like it and don't want to have to pay more in taxes."
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