Fact check: Trump lies again that grocery prices ‘have come way down’ this term

By Daniel Dale, CNN

(CNN) — Facing abysmal poll numbers on inflation as the midterm elections approach, President Donald Trump is sticking to the communications strategy he tried in the summer: lie.

Trump has tried for months to concoct an alternate reality in which the country has experienced broad deflation during this presidency, with prices for groceries and other items down big and still falling. He falsely told reporters Sunday: “The prices for groceries have come way down from Biden. Almost every price has come way down.”

It wasn’t clear whether the second sentence was about groceries in particular or about products of all kinds, but it was inaccurate regardless. Then, speaking to reporters again later in the day, he falsely said, “With the exception of oil, everything is going down.”

For good measure, Trump then made two more false claims in one sentence: “We inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country, and it’s going really down.”

Here are the facts.

Grocery prices are up, not “way down,” since former President Joe Biden left office. Grocery prices have increased 3.4% on average since January 2025, the month Trump took over from Biden, through August 2026, according to seasonally adjusted figures from the federal Consumer Price Index. (Overall consumer prices are up 4.8% over the same time period.)

Far more grocery products have increased in price than have “come way down” since Biden’s term ended. While a smattering of grocery items have gotten cheaper since January 2025, the federal figures show that a much greater number of grocery items have gotten more expensive. You can check out the numbers yourself in the searchable graphic at the bottom of this section.

Five of the six overarching categories of grocery products tracked by the Consumer Price Index are up substantially since January 2025: cereals and bakery products (up 3.3%); meats, poultry, fish and eggs (up 3%); fruits and vegetables (up 4.6%); nonalcoholic beverages and beverage materials (up 6.3%); and “other food at home” (up 3%). The sixth category, dairy and related products, is basically flat.

Trump has repeatedly touted a major decline in the price of eggs. They are indeed down big since January 2025, 31.1%, after spiking at the end of Biden’s term because of an avian flu outbreak. But the federal figures show eggs are an outlier, not a representative example. No other grocery product or product category has fallen even a third as much as eggs have during this presidency.

Coffee, meanwhile, is up 21.8%, while the beef and veal category is up 16.5%. Dozens of additional grocery products have seen smaller increases.

It’s not just oil. Numerous products are getting more expensive, not “going down.” Oil prices have jumped since Trump launched a war with Iran in late February, but they’re not the only products whose prices have been rising in recent months. Contrary to Trump’s claim that “everything” else is “going down,” federal figures show that dozens of products were more expensive in August, whether compared with a month prior or to a year prior. Food, shelter and new vehicles had all gotten pricier, to cite a few notable examples.

Trump didn’t inherit the worst inflation in history, and it’s higher now than when he returned to office. The year-over-year inflation rate was 2.9% in Biden’s last full month in office, December 2024, and 3% January 2025, the month Trump took over partway through. Even that 3% rate is lower, not higher, than the most recent rates under Trump — 3.4% in both August 2026 and July 2026 — and it’s unremarkable by historical standards.

Trump could fairly say that peak year-over-year inflation under Biden, 9.1% in June 2022, was the highest in more than 40 years. But even that 9.1% rate was far from the all-time high, 23.7%, and the rate then fell significantly before Trump returned to office.

The year-over-year inflation rate has been above 3% in each of the six months since the start of the Iran war. The rate increased each month from March through May, declined in June and July, and was flat in August.

It’s possible, of course, that the rate will decline in September and beyond. But Trump’s suggestion of a major improvement from the level he inherited is not supported by the current data.

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CNN’s Matt Stiles contributed to this report.