FactCheck, July 31, 2025 — In today’s article by Alan Jaffe and Saranac Hale Spencer they write, “About six months into the second term of President Donald Trump, Republicans and Democrats are making conflicting and often misleading assessments of the Trump administration’s impact on inflation and prices. Both sides cherry-pick examples of consumer products to support their claims, while sometimes wrongly taking credit for lower prices or falsely casting blame for rising costs.”

They explain that experts say the reasons for the rise or fall of prices usually involve a number of factors beyond the policies implemented in the first six months of the current administration, and predictions of success or failure of those policies, including tariffs, are still to be determined.

“The economy is roaring, business confidence is soaring, incomes are up, prices are down and inflation is dead, it’s dead,” Trump proclaimed at the White House Faith Office luncheon on July 14.

At a news briefing the same day, Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries offered a different portrait of the American economy. “Costs aren’t going down in the United States of America, costs are going up,” he said. “America is too expensive. And things aren’t getting better under Donald Trump and House Republican rule, they’re getting worse.”

Inflation, a major theme of the 2024 election, had increased substantially during the first half of President Joe Biden’s term, due largely to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the 12-month period ending in June 2022, the Consumer Price Index increased 9.1% – “the largest 12-month change since the period ending November 1981,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. The annual CPI moderated to below 3% for the six months before Trump returned to the White House, as we’ve written. It was 3% for the 12 months ending in January.

Contrary to Trump’s claim, not all prices are “down” and inflation isn’t “dead.” Based on the CPI, the inflation rate was 2.7% for the 12 months ending in June, and was up 0.8% from January to June. Core inflation, which doesn’t include the categories of food and energy, rose2.9% from June 2024. In January, annual core inflation was 3.3%.

Not all costs are “going up,” either, as Jeffries suggested.

We reached out to the White House for information to support Trump’s statements, but we did not receive a response. We also asked Jeffries’ office for support for his statements, and his office said it would “let the Leader’s comments on the record speak for themselves.” Jeffries’ office also noted the rise in the CPI in June and increases in prices for groceries, beef and other specific items.

In this story the reporters examine recent changes in the prices of some of the products Republican and Democratic leaders cite as bellwethers of the economic climate. Click here to read all about it.