Trump lied about food prices. Now he says it's too 'hard' to bring down costs. | Opinion

Donald Trump acts like he invented the word “groceries.” He credits talking about “groceries” for his win in the presidential election, and he managed to trick enough Americans into voting for him by telling them he would lower the cost of these mysterious things called groceries. (Rich people don’t need to understand groceries. They just push a button and someone brings them snacks and meals.)

Right before the election, Trump said: “They call it groceries! Bacon, lettuce, tomato. All the everything is so much higher than it ever was. And we’re going to bring that down, and we’re going to do it very simply.”

So a lot of voters thought, “Cool! I’m gonna go with the guy making that promise, even though he's a decades-long con artist who lies about virtually everything.”

So, that Trump promise to lower your food prices? Not gonna happen.

Well, get ready for this bit of news. In a new interview with Time magazine for its Person of the Year edition – I’m assuming he was named Person of the Year for coming up with the word “groceries” – Trump was asked about his promise to bring down food prices.

“Look, they got them up, I’d like to bring them down,” he said, blaming the Biden administration. “It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard.”

Hold up. This same man told me just weeks ago he’s going to bring down food prices and “we’re going to do it very simply.” Now he’s saying it’s hard. “Hard” and “simply” are two totally different things!

Knock me over with a feather.

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Who could have imagined a serial liar like Trump lying about something?

It appears the man who promised that Mexico would pay for the border wall (it didn’t) and promised he’d release a “beautiful” health care plan to replace Obamacare (he didn’t) and promised to release his tax returns (he didn’t) and promised his tax cuts would “give the typical American household around a $4,000 pay raise” (they didn’t) and said on the campaign trail that his tariffs “are not going to be a cost to you, it’s going to be a cost to another country” (he was lying and admitted as much in a recent NBC News interview, saying “I can’t guarantee anything” when asked if his tariffs would cause prices to rise) … well, it appears he may have been pulling our leg on the whole grocery prices thing.

It was all hocus-pocus to begin with, as there’s not much a president can do to wrestle food prices down. Did you think Democrats just wanted to lose the election so they chose not to push the magic “lower grocery prices” button?

Food prices are complex, and Trump was never going to fix them anyway

No, food prices went up during and after the COVID-19 pandemic for a slew of reasons, ranging from supply chain problems to worker shortages to droughts in certain parts of the world to the war in Ukraine. Oh, and don’t discount the companies that sell the food raking in record profits while riding those high prices and keeping them high.

The Biden administration and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris floated going after price gougers, but that caused every Republican to run for their fainting couch screaming, “SOCIALISM!”

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So here we are. Food prices are high, and it is a problem, but it’s not something Trump is going to fix through sheer force of will.

Now that he’s safely elected, he's admitting he can’t do it, and the people who voted for him because egg prices are appalling can rest easy knowing they’ve been conned by one of the best.

High grocery prices may be here to stay, so now Republicans will like them

Last month, Dan Scheitrum, an assistant professor of agribusiness at California Polytechnic State University, told Glamour magazine: “Prices don’t go back down to the previous level. They just stop increasing. So we’re at a new normal with prices that we’re unfamiliar with.”

And you know what that means, right? All of a sudden a reasonable assessment of what’s happened with food prices will become GOP gospel, and Trump and all those who condemned Biden and Harris for high grocery bills will start telling Americans everything’s fine and they should embrace the new normal.

Republicans will now pivot from promising to lower grocery prices “very simply” to this: “Sorry, it’s too hard. Whomp-whomp.”

But you know what’s not going to be hard? Lowering taxes for rich people.

Funny how that works, isn't it?

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump admits he can't lower your grocery bill. Sorry voters | Opinion