President Donald Trump’s election promise to bring down the cost of living took a bruising Wednesday as figures showed that U.S. inflation surged last month.
The consumer price index increased 3% in January from a year ago, according to the report from the Labor Department, which showed an increase of 2.9% in the previous month. It has risen from a three-and-a-half-year low of 2.4% in September.
The cost of groceries, gas, and used cars rose ― with the cost of eggs spiraling.
With farmers hit by the avian flu epidemic, egg prices leaped by 15.2%, the biggest monthly increase since June 2015. Egg prices are up 53% from last year.
The unexpectedly hot inflation figures blow a hole in one of Trump’s biggest pledges on the campaign trail.
“We will end inflation and make America affordable again, and we’re going to get the prices down. We have to get them down,” he said at a rally in September. “It’s too much. Groceries, cars, everything. We’re going to get the prices down.”
Yet shortly after the election, Trump started to scale back his ambitions.
“It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up,” he said in a November interview with Time. “You know, it’s very hard.”
Soon after the figures were released, Trump went into blame mode. He suggested that former President Joe Biden was the reason for the spike, not his own economic policies, which economists have warned risk pushing costs higher.
“BIDEN INFLATION UP!” he wrote on Truth Social.
The latest inflation figures mean an imminent interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve is unlikely.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump called for rates to come down, claiming cheaper money would “go hand in hand” with his tariffs agenda.
“Interest Rates should be lowered, something which would go hand in hand with upcoming Tariffs!!!” he wrote. “Lets Rock and Roll, America!!!”
The Federal Reserve ignored Trump’s previous demand to cut rates, holding the benchmark rate for two weeks.