The Trump Affordability Crisis

A desperate president, his popularity plunging, finally admits that he is the cause of soaring grocery prices.

It’s official.

Donald "TACO" Trump has finally admitted that he is directly responsible for the skyrocketing costs of groceries.

In a new executive order signed Friday, Trump has lowered tariffs on beef, coffee, tomatoes, bananas, and other agricultural imports.

As CNN notes, this latest TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) moves "comes after voters, worried about affordability, gave Republicans a drubbing in recent off-year elections."

But the damage is already done.

• Coffee prices, up 20% in the past year, "haven't surged this much in decades."
• Beef prices have soared 15%.
• Bananas are up 8% just since Trump was sworn in.

Even Trump's own US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer tells CNN the new tariff exemptions won't do much to make our lives more affordable.

Trump' economic mismanagement is wreaking chaos for consumers and small business owners

Trump's belated attempt to address voters' pocketbook concerns comes more than two weeks after he hosted a tone-deaf "Great Gatsby"-themed Mar-a-Lago extravaganza during the "Epstein Shutdown."

Images that circulated on social media showed a young woman "in a burlesque outfit" posing in a giant martini glass at the party, marking it as the kind of Trump-hosted event that Jeffrey Epstein would have likely enjoyed back in the day.

Trump's "Roaring 20s" event also coincided with the President's decision to wage an aggressive battle to deny 42 million Americans the vital food assistance they receive through SNAP, even after two judges ordered the Administration to use emergency funds set aside precisely for that purpose.

For many, TACO Trump's latest actions on groceries will be too little, too late—especially as the Trump affordability crisis affects way more than just groceries:

• Electricity prices are soaring, especially in states with the most data centers. Nationally, residential utility bills rose an average of 6% in August
• Healthcare costs are rising, as even insured families feel squeezed by both premium contributions and out-of-pocket costs. For millions in the ACA marketplaces, 2026 premiums have jumped an average of 26%. If Trump and the GOP allow ACA subsidies to expire, costs on those plans will surge an average of 114%
• Car prices and the cost of auto loans are increasing, with the average price of a new car above $50,000 and the share of borrowers whose monthly payments are above $1,000 now over 19%

• Subprime auto loan delinquencies have surged to the its worst levels since 1994, signaling the bottom end of the consumer economy is in deep trouble. "Meanwhile," says financial expert Andrew Lokenauth,"the U.S. now has a record $1.7 trillion in auto loans. Americans are drowning in debt. It's an unsustainable path."
• Overall consumer loan delinquency rates are at a 5-year high — with more loans past due signaling "inflation and other economic woes are stressing more consumers' budgets."

Making matters worse, real-income growth is at its lowest pace since the early 2010s, with young people experiencing the worst effects

Trump's message to Main Street: Be happy for Wall Street

Thanks in large part to AI, many corporations are increasing profits and the stock market is up, even as fears of an AI bubble spread.

But Big Tech doesn't create 2 out of 3 new jobs. Small businesses do. And those businesses, their plans wrecked by Trump tariffs, have stopped hiring.

Meanwhile, corporate layoffs are rising, too.

According to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas:

Job cuts for October totaled 153,074, a 183% surge from September and 175% higher than the same month a year ago. It was the highest level for any October since 2003 and has been the worst year for layoffs since 2009.

Job market gloom hasn't been this bad since the Great Recession.

Yet instead of taking steps to address the jobs crisis, Trump continues to make it worse.

This week, he seized the opportunity to tell American workers they're talentless and stupid, while simultaneously promoting his new plan to double the number of Chinese students in US colleges and universities, potentially leaving less places for Americans at some of the country's elite universities.

The politics of distraction aren't working like they used to

Trump, along with the criminal gang he calls a Cabinet, and his White House social media team have spent the first 10 months of his presidency relentlessly trolling the libs about policies that are rapidly destroying the hopes and dreams of MAGA and Independent voters.

But in 2025, our demented, lame-duck President can't distract his way out of the problems he's causing—or the scandals he's embroiled in.

In a sign that Americans are finally wising up to Trump's corruption and incompetence, Trump's approval numbers have plunged to the lowest point in either of his two terms.

In the most recent AP-NORC poll of how Trump manages the government, his approval among Independents plunged from 38% to just 25%.

Trump admits tariff inflation is not a "hoax," while still pretending the Epstein scandal is

Republicans' disastrous showing in this month‘s elections, fueled both by the Trump affordability crisis and the growing outrage over his party's obsession with a protecting him from allegations of child rape, have forced a remarkable about-face from a president who until a few days ago, was telling consumers not to believe their own grocery receipts.

But he's still desperately pleading with MAGA voters to ignore the Epstein receipts, even going so far as to label Marjorie Taylor Greene a "ranting lunatic" for her insistence that America must protect victims, not pedophiles.

But Trump's Epstein problems are only intensifying, with a growing possibility that even worse revelations still lie ahead.

When the Epstein discharge petition is put to a vote next week, many House Republicans are expected to defect from the "Pro-Pedophile" wing of the party (despite the White House threat that standing up for victims of child rape would be seen as "a hostile act" by the sex predator president).

As the walls close in on him, Trump is reverting to "Frantic Psychopath" mode, making him an even bigger danger to America and the world than he usually is. He's already signaling his willingness to "Wag the Dog" with new wars in Venezuela and beyond.

The truth is out there

Trump's confession that he is responsible for soaring grocery prices may not be the same as admitting his involvement in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.

But as the latest SNL cold open brought home, his actions in regard to the Epstein files are not those of an innocent man.

Trump's belated admission about tariff inflation does, however, confirm what the vast majority of Americans have already concluded: Trump is personally responsible for making the affordability crisis most Americans are facing worse than ever.

This is now the Trump Affordability Crisis.

He owns it 100%.

And, despite what he promised in the campaign, he has no plan to fix it.

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