Trump Has Glossed Over High Prices. Republicans Worry It Will Cost Them.
The president talks more often about federal workers, diversity programs and foreign policy than the price of eggs
March 2, 2025 9:00 pm ET
By Tarini Parti, Xavier Martinez and Josh Dawsey
Wall Street Journal
President Trump promised during the campaign to lower prices on day one of his presidency. But with costs still high, Republicans are worried the same economic factors that helped Trump win the election could come back to bite him if inflation remains stubborn.
In his frequent public appearances and social-media posts, Trump is more likely to talk about federal workers, diversity programs and foreign policy than the price of eggs. That is a contrast from last year’s presidential campaign, when Trump, urged by his advisers, made high costs a centerpiece of his bid to retake the White House.
Republicans, who still pin the blame on Trump’s predecessor, say voters have been willing to give Trump some leeway to enact his agenda—but they warn that goodwill might not last.
“I’m nervous about it,” said Stephen Moore, a veteran outside adviser to Trump on economic issues. “The Trump administration needs to keep its eye on what’s happening with prices. It should be a top priority. The trend is a little bit troubling.”
Further compounding the political risks: Trump’s far-reaching plans to impose stiff tariffs on foreign imports could drive up prices further, according to economists.
Most economic data released so far doesn’t capture Trump’s time in office. But U.S. consumer confidence saw the biggest monthly decline in four years in February, the Conference Board reported Tuesday. Core consumer price inflation was 3.3% in January, higher than economists had expected, and a survey by the University of Michigan also showed higher expected inflation in the coming year. As bird flu roils the poultry industry, record egg prices have added to Trump’s economic troubles.
The personal-consumption expenditures price index—the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge for inflation—had better news for Trump: It rose by 2.5% over the year through January, down from 2.6% in December, according to the Commerce Department.
“I don’t feel like people are blaming him on that yet, but I think that’s a risk you get three, six months down the road,” said Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, in an interview on the sidelines of a recent National Governors Association meeting. “It’s a risk for any politician.”
Kemp said Georgia voters were generally happy with Trump’s performance so far and blamed former President Joe Biden for higher inflation.
Though Trump repeatedly bashed Biden over prices during the campaign, he was at times reluctant to stay laser-focused on the issue.
Trump’s pollster, Tony Fabrizio, and other advisers regularly urged Trump to talk about inflation because they believed it was his best political weapon to win. But Trump was sometimes uninterested in talking points that his advisers provided on the subject, according to campaign officials. At one point in the fall, Trump told aides that it was “boring,” the officials said.
“How many times can you say an apple has doubled in cost?” he told supporters on Inauguration Day.
In a recent survey, Fabrizio highlighted that cost-of-living issues remain top of mind for voters in 18 of the most competitive congressional districts. The analysis, which surveyed 1,000 registered voters in those districts Feb. 11-13, found respondents favoring Democrats by 5 percentage points and 47% saying they approved of Trump’s job performance.
Trump is expected to provide an update on his economic agenda during a joint address to Congress on Tuesday.
Rich Anderson, chairman of the Republican Party in Virginia, which is one of the few states to hold elections this year, said he thinks the president is doing what he can to turn the economy around but voters will need to see the effects in the coming months.
“There will be a penalty to pay if there is a failure to deliver,” Anderson said.
Presidents have little ability to quickly lower prices, despite Trump’s promises. Prices are influenced by a series of complex factors, from global supply chains to independent decisions made by central banks.
Trump’s barrage of early executive actions have focused largely on immigration and overhauling the federal government. Although they don’t explicitly address prices, Republicans said some of those efforts could lower prices in the long term.
GOP Rep. Don Bacon, whose Nebraska district is one of the most hotly contested in the nation, said Trump’s efforts to boost energy production would help drive down prices, but not immediately.
“I think it’s too early to say if the president has acted on inflation,” Bacon said, cautioning that “it may take a while for tangible results for inflation to be seen.”
Trump, for his part, has argued to donors that inflation will go down as soon as oil companies drill more. “Inflation was 100% caused by energy,” Trump told donors last year, according to audio of his remarks reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Trump’s desire for lower interest rates has triggered public criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s handling of inflation. The Fed paused interest-rate cuts in January.
Trump administration officials feel confident they will be able to decrease prices, but don’t have a specific timeline for doing so, a White House official said. The official pointed to Trump’s focus on cutting government spending through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and his efforts to roll back energy regulations as examples of early actions that could reduce prices. The official said the administration has also targeted certain expensive items such as appliances with regulatory changes.
Trump has also announced a series of investments in the U.S. since winning the election, including from Apple, SoftBank, OpenAI and Meta. The companies have pledged to spend billions in the U.S. and create thousands of jobs, but most of the projects haven’t started yet.
The president’s plans to implement tariffs could also further boost inflation. Already, the president implemented 10% across-the-board tariffs on Chinese goods, announced 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, and called for a study of reciprocal tariffs, which would adjust U.S. tariffs to match those of other countries. He has also said he expects to move forward with 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada in coming days, as well as an additional 10% tariff on Chinese products.
The oil-and-gas industry was able to persuade Trump to reduce proposed tariffs on Canadian energy imports to 10% earlier this year after they argued higher tariffs would cause higher gas prices, creating bad inflation headlines in his first month in office, people familiar with the conversations said.
The president has said tariffs could cause “some pain” for U.S. consumers. But he has said his administration doesn’t need to study the potential effect of tariffs on prices.
Sen. James Lankford (R., Okla.) partly attributed the drop in consumer confidence to Trump’s hard-charging first month in office, citing the tariff threats. Lankford said it was too late to speculate whether the public would have preferred more incremental—or different—actions by the administration.
“I think right now it’s the uncertainty of all the changes,” Lankford said.
In a recent opinion column, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) warned that blanket tariffs would make it “more expensive to do business in America, driving up costs for consumers across the board.”
So far, the frustration that GOP lawmakers have seen in their home districts has been focused largely on Musk’s spending cuts and some of Trump’s foreign-policy comments. They haven’t seen as much political pressure on prices yet, GOP strategists said. But that could change by the time they return home for summer recess.
A Gallup poll conducted Feb. 3-16 found Trump’s approval rating on the economy to be lower than at the beginning of his first term and below that of other recent presidents at the same point in their terms. The survey found Trump’s approval rating on the economy to be 42%—6 percentage points lower than February 2017.
Democrats, who have struggled to come up with an effective line of attack against Trump, have also mostly kept the focus on Musk, but in recent weeks, some have turned back to the economy.
“Instead of even working on the economy, they’ve been on an insane bender, settling political scores and fighting a bunch of culture-war nonsense that people wanted to be done with,” said Ohio Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman.
March 2, 2025 9:00 pm ET
By Tarini Parti, Xavier Martinez and Josh Dawsey
Wall Street Journal
President Trump promised during the campaign to lower prices on day one of his presidency. But with costs still high, Republicans are worried the same economic factors that helped Trump win the election could come back to bite him if inflation remains stubborn.
In his frequent public appearances and social-media posts, Trump is more likely to talk about federal workers, diversity programs and foreign policy than the price of eggs. That is a contrast from last year’s presidential campaign, when Trump, urged by his advisers, made high costs a centerpiece of his bid to retake the White House.
Republicans, who still pin the blame on Trump’s predecessor, say voters have been willing to give Trump some leeway to enact his agenda—but they warn that goodwill might not last.
“I’m nervous about it,” said Stephen Moore, a veteran outside adviser to Trump on economic issues. “The Trump administration needs to keep its eye on what’s happening with prices. It should be a top priority. The trend is a little bit troubling.”
Further compounding the political risks: Trump’s far-reaching plans to impose stiff tariffs on foreign imports could drive up prices further, according to economists.
Most economic data released so far doesn’t capture Trump’s time in office. But U.S. consumer confidence saw the biggest monthly decline in four years in February, the Conference Board reported Tuesday. Core consumer price inflation was 3.3% in January, higher than economists had expected, and a survey by the University of Michigan also showed higher expected inflation in the coming year. As bird flu roils the poultry industry, record egg prices have added to Trump’s economic troubles.
The personal-consumption expenditures price index—the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge for inflation—had better news for Trump: It rose by 2.5% over the year through January, down from 2.6% in December, according to the Commerce Department.
“I don’t feel like people are blaming him on that yet, but I think that’s a risk you get three, six months down the road,” said Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, in an interview on the sidelines of a recent National Governors Association meeting. “It’s a risk for any politician.”
Kemp said Georgia voters were generally happy with Trump’s performance so far and blamed former President Joe Biden for higher inflation.
Though Trump repeatedly bashed Biden over prices during the campaign, he was at times reluctant to stay laser-focused on the issue.
Trump’s pollster, Tony Fabrizio, and other advisers regularly urged Trump to talk about inflation because they believed it was his best political weapon to win. But Trump was sometimes uninterested in talking points that his advisers provided on the subject, according to campaign officials. At one point in the fall, Trump told aides that it was “boring,” the officials said.
“How many times can you say an apple has doubled in cost?” he told supporters on Inauguration Day.
In a recent survey, Fabrizio highlighted that cost-of-living issues remain top of mind for voters in 18 of the most competitive congressional districts. The analysis, which surveyed 1,000 registered voters in those districts Feb. 11-13, found respondents favoring Democrats by 5 percentage points and 47% saying they approved of Trump’s job performance.
Trump is expected to provide an update on his economic agenda during a joint address to Congress on Tuesday.
Rich Anderson, chairman of the Republican Party in Virginia, which is one of the few states to hold elections this year, said he thinks the president is doing what he can to turn the economy around but voters will need to see the effects in the coming months.
“There will be a penalty to pay if there is a failure to deliver,” Anderson said.
Presidents have little ability to quickly lower prices, despite Trump’s promises. Prices are influenced by a series of complex factors, from global supply chains to independent decisions made by central banks.
Trump’s barrage of early executive actions have focused largely on immigration and overhauling the federal government. Although they don’t explicitly address prices, Republicans said some of those efforts could lower prices in the long term.
GOP Rep. Don Bacon, whose Nebraska district is one of the most hotly contested in the nation, said Trump’s efforts to boost energy production would help drive down prices, but not immediately.
“I think it’s too early to say if the president has acted on inflation,” Bacon said, cautioning that “it may take a while for tangible results for inflation to be seen.”
Trump, for his part, has argued to donors that inflation will go down as soon as oil companies drill more. “Inflation was 100% caused by energy,” Trump told donors last year, according to audio of his remarks reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Trump’s desire for lower interest rates has triggered public criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s handling of inflation. The Fed paused interest-rate cuts in January.
Trump administration officials feel confident they will be able to decrease prices, but don’t have a specific timeline for doing so, a White House official said. The official pointed to Trump’s focus on cutting government spending through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and his efforts to roll back energy regulations as examples of early actions that could reduce prices. The official said the administration has also targeted certain expensive items such as appliances with regulatory changes.
Trump has also announced a series of investments in the U.S. since winning the election, including from Apple, SoftBank, OpenAI and Meta. The companies have pledged to spend billions in the U.S. and create thousands of jobs, but most of the projects haven’t started yet.
The president’s plans to implement tariffs could also further boost inflation. Already, the president implemented 10% across-the-board tariffs on Chinese goods, announced 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, and called for a study of reciprocal tariffs, which would adjust U.S. tariffs to match those of other countries. He has also said he expects to move forward with 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada in coming days, as well as an additional 10% tariff on Chinese products.
The oil-and-gas industry was able to persuade Trump to reduce proposed tariffs on Canadian energy imports to 10% earlier this year after they argued higher tariffs would cause higher gas prices, creating bad inflation headlines in his first month in office, people familiar with the conversations said.
The president has said tariffs could cause “some pain” for U.S. consumers. But he has said his administration doesn’t need to study the potential effect of tariffs on prices.
Sen. James Lankford (R., Okla.) partly attributed the drop in consumer confidence to Trump’s hard-charging first month in office, citing the tariff threats. Lankford said it was too late to speculate whether the public would have preferred more incremental—or different—actions by the administration.
“I think right now it’s the uncertainty of all the changes,” Lankford said.
In a recent opinion column, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) warned that blanket tariffs would make it “more expensive to do business in America, driving up costs for consumers across the board.”
So far, the frustration that GOP lawmakers have seen in their home districts has been focused largely on Musk’s spending cuts and some of Trump’s foreign-policy comments. They haven’t seen as much political pressure on prices yet, GOP strategists said. But that could change by the time they return home for summer recess.
A Gallup poll conducted Feb. 3-16 found Trump’s approval rating on the economy to be lower than at the beginning of his first term and below that of other recent presidents at the same point in their terms. The survey found Trump’s approval rating on the economy to be 42%—6 percentage points lower than February 2017.
Democrats, who have struggled to come up with an effective line of attack against Trump, have also mostly kept the focus on Musk, but in recent weeks, some have turned back to the economy.
“Instead of even working on the economy, they’ve been on an insane bender, settling political scores and fighting a bunch of culture-war nonsense that people wanted to be done with,” said Ohio Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman.
