Former President Donald Trump vowed that if elected president, he would “sign an executive order directing” each cabinet secretary and agency head to “use every tool” they had to defeat inflation.
“On my first day back in the Oval Office, I will sign an executive order directing every cabinet secretary and agency head to use every tool and authority at their disposal to defeat inflation and to bring consumer prices rapidly down,” Trump told the crowd from Asheville, North Carolina.
Trump’s comments come as the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Wednesday that inflation had risen in July. The consumer price index was reported to have climbed up to 2.9 in July, up from a year ago.
In June, the inflation index rate increased by three percent from a year ago.
“We’ll do it very rapidly,” Trump added during his speech. “When you look at the cost of groceries, the cost of bacon went up four and five times. Bacon, I don’t order bacon anymore, it’s too expensive. It will be a whole of government effort to raise the standard of living and make American life affordable again.”
During a recent interview with Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, Trump commented on how “a lot of people” don’t have the money to be able to afford “a whole cart” of groceries anymore.
Under the Biden administration, grocery prices have seen a sharp increase. In 2021, food prices saw an increase of 6.3 percent and 10.4 percent in 2022, according to TheStreet. In 2023, the increase in food prices was reported to have “slowed” to 2.7 percent.
As Breitbart News reported, a recent YouGov poll found that 77 percent of Americans feel that inflation is a “very important” issue.
Another poll from the Financial Times found that inflation has been among the three top sources of financial stress for 78 percent of voters.
