Donald Trump took a break from his most sacred activity—golfing or watching golf—to make false claims about the state of his economy.
The president, 80, spoke to reporters after attending the Presidents Cup in Chicago on Sunday. There, he bragged that “401(k)s are at an all-time high, the stock market is at an all-time high, and our country is doing really well.”
“With the exception of oil, which is lower than under the Biden administration, and we no longer have to worry about nuclear weapons because Iran has been wiped out,” he added. “Prices are going down. We have it going down.”
“We inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country, and it’s really going down.”
But CNN’s resident fact-checker Daniel Dale blew the lid off the president’s claims.
“No. Again,” Dale wrote in response to Trump’s claims, adding: “Overall grocery prices are up 3.4% since Jan. 2025, and way more grocery items are up than down.”
The analyst included screenshots of the Consumer Price Index, which measures the average change over time in the prices paid by consumers for goods and services.
“In summary: The price of eggs has fallen big under Trump after spiking late in Biden’s term because of a bird flu outbreak; a few other items have gotten cheaper, but by much less than eggs; the overwhelming majority of items have gotten more expensive,” Dale wrote.
“It’s fair to note that grocery prices tend to rise no matter who the president is. But this president keeps lying that there has been grocery *deflation.*”
In response, White House spokesperson Kush Desai defended the president’s inaccurate claims. “President Trump is right: the prices of beef, chicken, prescription drugs, and many other household essentials have declined in the last couple CPI inflation reports because of the Trump administration’s policies,” he said, adding that the president remains “focused on delivering more economic relief for everyday Americans.”
While Trump may reassure himself, most Americans aren’t buying his claims—not even Republicans. A third of Republicans said that the gap between rich and poor is a “big problem” in an Economist/YouGov poll from earlier this year, while affordability remains a top concern for Americans, according to Gallup’s annual Economy and Personal Finance survey.
Recent polls show voters are feeling the impacts of inflation, which stood at 3.4 percent as of August.
Inflation has remained stubbornly high in recent months. The ongoing war in Iran has also disrupted oil supplies and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, putting additional upward pressure on energy prices.
As of Monday, gas prices stand at a national average of $4.4768, in line with expectations of a record-breaking month, largely driven by Trump’s war.
