The Promise Trump Made That He Never Intended To Keep

 

When Donald Trump was running for re-election in 2024, he made a promise to Americans - that he would immediately lower prices. It was that promise, more than any other, that allowed him to siphon off enough voters to win the election - because many millions of Americans were having trouble making ends meet financially.

Unfortunately, he had no intention of actually following through on that promise. 

I say that because one of the first things he did after taking office was to place a tariff on goods imported from nearly every nation in the world. He tried to convince people that the tariff would be paid by the nations importing goods in this country. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that was not true. 

The tariffs were paid by the businesses importing the goods. Those businesses than raised prices for consumers to account for the tariffs they paid. In other words, the tariffs had the opposite effect to his promise. It raised the prices on nearly everything imported - and many of those goods are not made or grown in the United States, so consumers had no choice but to pay higher prices.

Then Trump (and his GOP cohorts) passed their "big beautiful bill". That bill gave massive tax cuts to the rich and super-rich (and a pittance to many in the middle class). To partially pay for it, the bill kicked many off of SNAP (food stamps) and Medicaid, and made insurance unaffordable for millions more getting help through enhanced payments for private insurance (through Obamacare).

This made life much harder for millions of Americans - many of whom had voted for him because he promised to make things more affordable. 

The bill also had another effect. It raised the national debt by trillions of dollars. That huge increase in national debt caused an increase in the rates for borrowing. That made everything Americans borrowed to buy (like auto and homes) to cost a lot more. It was just another move to increase inflation.

Those moves would have been bad enough for Americans having trouble affording to live in this country, but then Trump did something very stupid - he started a war with Iran without the proper planning or a plan to disengage. Iran retaliated by closing the Strait of Hormuz - causing oil prices to skyrocket around the world.

That war, now in its eighth month, caused gas prices to jump sharply. This negatively affected millions of Americans - making them spend significantly more for gas on their already tight budgets.

It also caused an even bigger increase in the price of diesel. This was disastrous for farmers who use diesel to plant, nurture, and harvest their crops - and it raised the prices on what they grow. Also, diesel is used to power the big trucks that deliver to market almost everything Americans need. The increase in cost to shipping is passed on to customers. Once again, Trump caused prices to rise instead of fall.

Trump promised to lower prices during his campaign, but his actions upon becoming president has just raised those prices.

It was a promise he never intended to keep.