Trump’s ‘Golden Age’ Of Tariffs Has Been Great — If You Like Higher Prices

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s promised “golden age” of high tariffs has spiked inflation to levels higher than during his predecessor Joe Biden’s final year in office, increasing prices on everything from electricity to coffee.

In the four months since he announced his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs on goods from the rest of the world, inflation on groceries is running at 3.1% on an annualized basis, according to a HuffPost analysis of federal government statistics. In Biden’s final year, grocery prices increased 1.8%.

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The inflation rate for electricity over the past four months is running at 15.7% – more than four times what it was in Biden’s final year.

The overall inflation rate is now also higher than it was in Biden’s last 12 months in office: 3.1% on an annualized basis, compared to 2.8%.

“This is what economists warned would happen,” said University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers. “Trump promised these prices would fall. While one could quibble about the rate at which these prices are rising, there’s no question that he hasn’t delivered.”

Trump’s White House did not respond to HuffPost queries on the topic. As he does on most matters, Trump has simply lied that he has fulfilled his promise, as he did Thursday at a news conference during his visit to Great Britain.

“We’ve already solved inflation. We’ve solved prices,” he claimed, falsely.

Trump regained the presidency in large part based on his pledge to lower prices, including specific promises to bring down food and energy costs. Eight months in, the trade war he announced during an April 2 Rose Garden ceremony is the major reason he is failing to keep those promises, according to Wolfers and other economists.

“We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers and, ultimately, more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers,” he promised. “This will be indeed the golden age of America.”

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Instead of lowering costs, though, tariffs have brought higher prices, both because of the tax American importers pay for finished goods but also because U.S. manufacturers rely on so many foreign raw materials and intermediary parts.

“Donald Trump promised he’d bring costs down on ‘day one,’ but eight months into his term, inflation remains high, and now, it’s getting harder and harder to find a job as hiring slows to a near standstill and unemployment rises,” said Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin. “Americans aren’t being ‘liberated,’ they’re being robbed by Trump’s chaotic billionaire-first economic agenda.”