Trump’s Mixed Bag on Prices—Why Some Stuff Got Cheaper (And Why Most Didn’t)

Some Prices Did Drop—Here’s Why

Trump’s being roasted for saying prices are down, and yeah, overall inflation isn’t exactly dead (it was 3% this September). But let’s not lie to ourselves: a few things really did get cheaper. That’s not a fluke. It’s policy, and it worked—kind of.

Drugs:
Trump twisted some arms in Big Pharma and told them, “You’re not ripping us off anymore.” He pushed for “Most Favored Nation” pricing—basically telling drug companies to give Americans the same deals they give other countries. End result? Certain obesity meds dropped from $1,000+ to around $149/month. Not bad.

Eggs:
Avian flu wiped out chickens. Prices shot up—$8 for a dozen eggs? Madness. Trump’s USDA stepped in fast, boosted farm biosecurity, threw farmers a lifeline, and lifted import rules. Prices dropped like a stone, back to just over $2. Classic supply-side fix.

Beef and Fruit:
Trump cut tariffs on imported food that Americans rely on. Sure, these were just undoing some of his earlier trade-war nonsense, but hey—it brought prices back down. Sometimes cleaning up your own mess is still a win.

Cars:
He cut fuel-efficiency penalties, saving U.S. car makers billions. Supposedly shaved 3–5% off car production costs. But that doesn’t mean cheaper cars—those savings mostly stayed with the automakers. Still, it's a cost cut somewhere.

Oil:
He nuked some drilling regs and leaned hard on OPEC+ to pump more. Did they listen? Maybe. Prices dipped from $75 to under $60 per barrel. But that drop also had a lot to do with weak demand and global instability—not just Trump’s tweets.

So yeah, some wins here. But here’s the Friedman kicker: these are all micro moves. They mess with specific prices, not the whole damn economy. You want to bring down all prices? You’ve got to get the money printer under control. Which brings us to…

Why Prices Still Went Up (And Keep Going Up)

Now here’s the other side. Trump might’ve shaved a few bucks off your meds or groceries, but in the background, he was pouring gas on the fire with policies that jacked prices everywhere else.

Tariffs:
The big one. He slapped tariffs on nearly every foreign good under the sun. The average tariff rate shot from 1.2% to 13.6%. That’s not “tough on China”—that’s a backdoor tax on YOU. Importers eat it at first, but they pass it on. JPMorgan says you’re already paying about 20% of that burden. That’s about $1,200 out of your pocket this year—and they say it’ll rise to $1,600 next.

Safety Net Cuts:
Trump gutted programs like Medicaid and food stamps. Penn Wharton says poor Americans will pay more out of pocket just to survive. Combine that with cuts to tax credits (like the $7,500 EV incentive) and people are feeling the squeeze.

The Debt Bomb:
This is where Friedman’s ghost starts screaming. Trump passed a massive tax cut, but didn’t cut spending. The result? $4 trillion more added to the debt. That spooked bond markets, pushed up Treasury yields, and drove up borrowing costs—mortgages, car loans, credit cards—everything.

The Dying Dollar:
As debt piles up and spending spirals, confidence in the dollar falls. The greenback has dropped more than 8% this year. That means foreign goods cost more, even if tariffs didn’t exist. And yeah, weak dollar helps exports, but for most of us? It just means stuff is more expensive at Walmart.

So, you’ve got rising debt, loose monetary policy, and a weakening currency. You don’t need a PhD in economics to know what comes next. Prices creep up—and they don’t stop.

What Friedman Would Say (If He Were Still Around)

Here’s where Milton Friedman’s logic slices through the B.S.

He told us decades ago: inflation isn’t about greedy corporations or chicken shortages. It’s about the money supply. Period.

So while Trump played whack-a-mole with certain prices—slashing tariffs here, strong-arming Big Pharma there—he didn’t fix the root problem. He didn’t rein in the Fed. He didn’t stop the spending spree. In fact, he escalated it.

Friedman’s bottom line? If you keep pumping money into the system without real growth behind it, prices go up. Always. Doesn’t matter if a few items get cheaper—your rent, your fuel, your groceries, your future—those costs will find a way to rise.

What It Means for You

• The system’s being rigged to look like it's helping you, while inflation eats your paycheck alive.
• Tariffs aren’t “pro-America.” They’re stealth taxes on your consumption.
• Government handouts to corporations (while gutting the safety net) make the average person more dependent, more broke, and more screwed.
• Weak dollars mean strong pain at the register—and it’s only getting worse.
• And unless someone slams the brakes on the money machine, you’ll see more of the same, no matter who's in the Oval Office.

Don’t Just Sit There—Get Ready

Prices are going to keep swinging, but the direction is clear. If you're not protecting yourself, you're just another sheep waiting to get sheared.

Download “Seven Steps to Protect Yourself from Bank Failure” by Bill Brocius.
It's not about panic—it’s about prep. If you don’t have a strategy for what's coming, you’re already behind.

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