Under Trump, Inflation Is Costing Average US Family $700 More Per Month

[B.See]

Under Trump, Inflation Is Costing Average US Family $700 More Per Month - Common Dreams While Trump claimed that he would bring down prices, the reality is that Americans have seen their costs soar even higher since he took office.

Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee released a report Thursday detailing how much more the average American family in every US state is having to spend monthly to cover the rising costs of food, shelter, energy, and other necessities under... Donald Trump.

The panel released its report on the same day the Trump administration was supposed to publish the October Consumer Price Index (CPI) data. The closely watched CPI report was delayed by the shutdown, and the Trump White House said Wednesday that it’s likely the figures will never be released.

Deploying the same methodology that Republicans used to track cost increases under former President Joe Biden, JEC Democrats found that the average US family is spending roughly $700 more per month on basic items since Trump took office in January, pledging to bring prices “way down.”

“While... Trump claimed that he would bring down prices, the reality is that Americans have seen their costs soar even higher since he took office,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), the JEC’s ranking member. “As families across the country spend more to pay their bills and put food on the table, Democrats and Republicans should be working together to lower costs. Instead, Trump is pushing ahead with reckless tariffs that continue to fuel inflation and drive prices up even higher.”

[Diamond_Dog]

1. Needs to be shouted from the rooftops!

[ProfessorGAC]

19. If It Were Accurate, Yes

But, it's not.
2 major flaws.
The $700 is per year, not per month.
And, it assumes inflation would have been zero. Under Biden, the administration got it down to 2.9%. Very, very good, but not close to zero.
The article is simply ClickBait.

[MichMan]

2. Inflation rate is around 3% annually

I would have to spend nearly $24,000 per month in order for costs to go up $700

[JBTaurus83]

4. I agree

This is far fetched. It may be the case soon though with the GOP collapsing our healthcare system.

[doc03]

9. I agree, costs can't be up $700 a month at 3% inflation. I don't think that

kind of obvious false claim helps us. I would agree over the last 4 years maybe but this year no way.

[popsdenver]

13. If you swallow

that the annual inflation rate is 3%......then you are correct..........The Consumer Price Index, a key to the inflation rate, underwent major manipulation during the Reagan years, and it has never been straightened out since. Reagan inflation, as I remember, was 16%, he didn't do anything about the inflation, he just got his people to recalculate how it was figured, and what items would no longer be included..........

AND, don't forget about "shrink flation"

I don't consider the annual inflation rate to includejust food.......I have seen outrageous cost increases in Automobile Insurance, Homeowners insurance, Medical Insurance, pharmaceutical costs, etc etc etc.

[W_HAMILTON]

21. Here's the report:

https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/e0d0c562-4b88-409b-ac58-7beb5d3da626/jec-state-inflation-tracker-november-2025.pdf

It's $700 on MONTHLY items -- not $700 each and every month.

It means the average American family has spent $700 more since Trump took office than they otherwise would have.

That number is going to be skyrocket once Trump's reduced ACA subsidies kick in at the start of next year...

[SheltieLover]

3. In food alone!

[B.See]

17. Exactly. The missus told me

earlier this week the price of meat (steak) at the local Walmart went up $10 dollars.

[SheltieLover]

20. Yup

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Rents, real estate taxes, maintenance, meds, electricity

Some of those are big ticket items. Cost of tires is way up. Paint.

[dalton99a]

6. Kick

[unblock]

7. Look at the chart, not the journalist's text. $706 is the *cumulative* cost increase, not the monthly cost increase.

Thus makes a lot more sense. It's 7 months from February to September, just over half a year.

If the average household spends 35,000 per year, 700 over the course of half a year would be 4% annual inflation, which is in the right ball park.

If 700 is the increase *per month*, that's crazy double-digit hyperinflation. We've got inflation, but not like that.

[leftstreet]

10. This

[MichMan]

11. That just means the "journalist" isn't

Should probably find a different career

[unblock]

12. Every story I know of for which I had inside info was published with errors

We're only talking about half a dozen stories, but every story had numerous, inexplicable mistakes.

I used to think journalists were either incompetent or lazy, but now that I have more experience as an engineer, I understand that the journalistic process is just not designed for correct, accurate reporting.

There's often very little time for careful research and there's usually no quality assurance process. An editor may review for style and such, but typically not for content. Certainly, if the reporter got someone's age wrong, the editor isn't going to be able to fix that unless it's someone famous. Even then, they're not likely to double-check more than one or two facts, if that.

And it's worse for technical reporting, at best, the journalist minored in economics so they can be conversant with the experts, but they're not remotely at the level to understand it well enough to translate it accurately for the masses.

So I don't blame journalists for inaccuracies like this, I just do my own QA.

What I do blame them for is obvious bias....

[MichMan]

14. This wasn't a minor error; it was the whole premise of the article

Anyone with any critical thinking skills could figure out that the average household wasn't paying an extra $700 a month when the chart it is based on is listed right there and states it was cumulative over 8 months.

Saying costs went up $88 per month won't generate nearly as many clicks though, will it?

[unblock]

15. Agreed, though my point is that errors are all over the media. Way more than most people realize

And if they have just plain have a lousy process, some of the errors will be big.

If you want major journalistic fails, how about the idea that Hillary setting up a private server through which a handful of emails retroactively deemed to be classified and for which she was officially exonerated if any crime was ever a story worth covering more than a day or two, while the blatantly overt partisan abuse of power in investigating her over a non-crime was hardly worth a mention....

[ProfessorGAC]

18. Both You And Unblock Nailed It

Also, the increase, even if annualized, assume inflation would have been zero.
It was 2.9% in Joe's last year.

[proud patriot]

8. Kicking