Trump won't lower prices – no matter how many fake grocery bills go viral

There's a weird genre of conservative trolling where someone posts a photo of a handful of groceries and captions it with things like “This cost me $190.” THANK YOU, BIDEN.”

Of course this is all nonsense. But apart from the lies, what do these people expect from Donald Trump?

The genre may have been pioneered by none other than David Brooks of the New York Times, a conservative columnist who complained on X last September about spending $78 on a burger and fries at the airport.

“This meal cost me just $78 at Newark Airport,” Brooks says tweeted. “That’s why Americans think the economy is terrible.”

The accompanying photos showed what appeared to be a burger, crinkle-cut fries, lettuce, tomatoes, ketchup packets and an amber-colored drink on ice. It turned out that he greatly exaggerated and had apparently bought it two Double shots of whiskey.

Since then, the genre has become popular among right-wingers as a way to claim that the economy is destroying people's lives and that it is therefore necessary to vote for Trump.

Quickly an X user exposed the claim to price the same items in two different sales outlets:

Claim: $175
Actually: Walmart: $80
Whole Foods: $119

Even New York Times reporter Mike Isaac According to Whole Foods near him in the high-cost San Francisco Bay Area, the price is higher. The price? $120.

However, no one is saying that food prices have not increased. It has. But what would Trump do about it?

In response to this specific question at an event in Michigan, Trump said he would lower prices by restricting food imports. Economists rightly so pointed out that a restriction of competition would actually be the case increase lower prices and lead to retaliatory tariffs that would hurt American farmers and force them to raise prices again to make up for those losses.

We know that price gouging has been a problem sensible driver of these higher grocery bills, but Trump has attacked a proposal from Vice President Kamala Harris to punish price gougers as “Soviet-style” controls. But like this Politico story points outRepublicans at the state level have embraced price gouging in the food industry. But Trump isn't interested in that because he will never do anything to hinder anyone's profit, especially at the expense of the plebeians.

And then there are the effects that Trump's policies would likely have on the overall economy.

Sixteen Nobel Prize-winning economists have done this argued that Trump's policies would “reignite this inflation with his fiscally irresponsible budgets.” Another letterthis time from 23 Nobel Prize winners, explained: “[Trump’s] Policies that include high tariffs even on the goods of our friends and allies, as well as regressive tax cuts for businesses and individuals, will lead to higher prices, larger deficits, and greater inequality. The most important determinants of economic success include the rule of law and economic and political security, and Trump threatens them all.”

None of this would bode well for food prices.

These conservatives who post pictures of their food aren't going to buy arguments from academics or look at graphs falling inflation That means the envy of the world. They have an agenda to sell: They need Trump to get elected.

Let’s get to work electing Kamala Harris as our next president! Sign up for as many shifts as you can by November 5th to speak to progressive voters in key states who might not go to the polls without hearing from you!