America’s affordability crisis is (mostly) a mirage

That doesn’t diminish its political power

The IRONY is almost painful enough to make you pity the president. Donald Trump won the 2024 election in part by fulminating about inflation, which he blamed on the Democratic Party. He pledged to bring down prices “very, very rapidly” and “Make America Affordable Again”. As Mr Trump was surely aware, that promise was undeliverable; an economy-wide fall in prices is unprecedented outside a deep recession. Besides, since taking office, Mr Trump’s most noteworthy policy on prices has been to raise them further, by adding punishing tariffs to the cost of America’s imports.

This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “Fake blues”

From the January 3rd 2026 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Elon Musk is going all-in on an unproven technology

What lies behind the world’s biggest public offering

Indonesia’s president is jeopardising the economy and democracy

Prabowo Subianto is too spendthrift and too authoritarian

China is pushing Donald Trump for Taiwan concessions

Some in Taipei and Washington fear he may give ground

Trump and Xi will struggle to strike a major economic deal

Just avoiding a renewed clash will count as success

The crisis in oil markets will get bigger before it goes away

As stocks dwindle, further price rises are inevitable

Might Donald Trump try to rig the midterms?

We assess America’s democratic defences