Why isn’t corporate media pressuring Trump every day for his plan to reduce inflation?!

Democratic leaders need to lean in on the "Trump Tax"

CBS poll from Sunday shows people feeling pain from Trump’s inflation

In the lead up to the 2024 election, corporate media could not stop telling us that this election was all about inflation—especially the price of eggs. And after the election, corporate media patted themselves on the back with headlines that blared: “Why high prices toppled Democrats,” “Hey stupid, it wasn't just the economy. It was inflation” and “Egg-flation helped Trump win as Americans count cost of groceries.”

Given that inflation obsession, you would expect that after a new report was released Wednesday showing prices are exploding—and especially for eggs--it would cause the corporate media in one voice to demand answers from Trump about his plans to reduce these costs?! Yet as of now we are not seeing that.

But just look at what we learned Wednesday from Trump’s Labor Department. Prices rose last month 0.5% from December, which marks the largest monthly increase in a year and half—going back to August 2023. This jump in inflation-as The Wall Street Journal noted—was well ahead of economists’ expectations for a milder increase of 0.3%. (This makes you question whether Trump will allow his administration in the future to reveal accurate inflation data?!)

And what about the all-important eggs that we were told was the one item shoppers talked about when deciding who to vote for? Well in the past month alone, egg prices rose more than 15% from December—which as the WSJ reported is—“the largest increase since June 2015.” Yes, we just saw the highest increase in egg prices in nearly ten years. How is that not the headline story everywhere?!

Now to be fair to Trump—words I never thought I’d utter—blaming him for the entire jump in prices is not grounded in reality. These prices reflect the entire month of January—but and he was only in office since Jan. 20.

But the media should be pressing Trump to lay out a detailed, multi-faceted plan to bring these prices down. After all during the campaign, Trump promised voters he would end the "inflation nightmare"-as he put it--on “Day 1” in office.

Instead, when you look at the executive orders and other proclamation Trump has signed since being sworn in, he has been focused on the so-called culture war issues aka racism, sexism and bigotry. As Axios reports, the focus of Trump’s executive orders, memos and proclamations during his first few weeks include seven differing ones about ending diversity and inclusion programs, twelve dealing with rounding up immigrants, four targeting transgender Americans and others like renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

Even on Wednesday, Trump responded to the new inflation data not with a plan to address but by posting online, “BIDEN INFLATION UP!”

But here’s the thing Trump is going to hate. Recent polls show that Americans are seeing the prices go up and feeling the pain. A CBS poll released on Sunday found 47% of voters said they had seen prices rise over the “past few weeks” to only 3% who said they went down. And a new University of Michigan poll measuring consumer sentiment taken since Trump was sworn shows a “pervasive” dip in consumer sentiment, with Republicans, Democrats and independents all registering declines.

And worse for Trump, that same CBS poll from Sunday is pointing fingers directly at Trump for rising prices. As CBS reported, 66 percent of Americans say the Trump administration isn't focused enough on lowering prices. When is the last time two thirds of Americans agreed on anything involving Trump?! This poll means Americans—including Trumpers—are feeling the pain of inflation.

That explains why Fox News’s Brett Baier asked Trump about inflation during their Super Bowl interview this past Sunday with the question, “If all goes to plan, when do you think families will be able to feel prices going down—groceries, energy?” Did Trump offer a plan? Nope, in fact he didn’t even offer a concept of a plan. Instead, he evaded the question by saying, “I think we’re going to become a rich – and look, we’re not that rich right now,” and then he began blabbering about national debt and trade.

Worse for all of us, inflation is actually about to get worse. Trump’s tariffs—such as his 10% tariff on all goods from China and his new 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports--will be causing a spike in prices as experts told The Wall Street Journal.

For example, Omair Sharif, founder of research firm Inflation Insights, explained to the WSJ in an article published Wednesday that we should expect prices to rise by March or April on all goods Trump imposed a tariff on. To back up that point, Sharif pointed to when Trump imposed 20% tariffs on imported washing machines in February 2018. What happened? Well, consumers saw the price of washing machines rise just two months later by 18.2%, nearly matching the tariff.

Keep in mind last year the U.S. imported nearly $440 billion in goods from China with the top items being smartphones, computers, toys, lithium batteries and more. This massive list of goods will soon cost 10% higher impacting all of us. Plus everything related to imported steel and aluminum will soon jump in price because of Trump’s new 25% tariffs—including cars, electric appliances, homebuilding materials and more. And if Trump re-imposes his 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, we will see inflation explode everywhere form the grocery store to the oil pump.

On some level it’s incorrect to say Trump has no plan for inflation. He does—and that plan is to increase inflation to justify giving his wealthy oligarchs who bankrolled his campaign a big tax cut. And as inflation rises, Trump will have to serve up even more white supremacy and misogyny to keep his base happy. That is the reality.

But why isn’t corporate media pressing Trump on his plan to reduce inflation—especially since they told us voters top concern in 2024 election was inflation?! Once again corporate media is failing us--meaning it’s up to us to spread the news. And Democratic leaders need to help by leaning into this issue. They should also call the new tariffs the “Trump tax.” From there, Democrats should be loudly blaming all inflation on Trump.

Higher prices are a real issue that impact people personally. And as Trump’s approval numbers continue to slide due to higher inflation and his “Trump tax,” the opposition to his policies—including by a few House Republicans in swing districts-will grow. This is all part of how we stop Trump.

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