Trump tries a familiar inflation playbook

The president borrows a Biden tactic, deflecting public concerns about prices by blaming food producers.

November 7, 2025 at 6:02 p.m. EST November 7, 2025

President Donald Trump greets Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the White House on Friday. (Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post)

The Democratic romp in this week’s off-year elections highlighted voters’ persistent frustration about inflation and the cost of living. The White House has taken note. Unfortunately, its first reflex is the same as that of the Biden-Harris administration: Blame corporate price gouging. That approach didn’t turn out well for Democrats in 2024, and there’s no reason the GOP should expect better results.

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“I have asked the DOJ to immediately begin an investigation into the Meat Packing Companies who are driving up the price of Beef through Illicit Collusion, Price Fixing, and Price Manipulation,” President Donald Trump said Friday on Truth Social.

If that’s true, regulators can bring cases and prove it. Trump’s abrupt public declaration suggests he’s casting about for a political answer to cost-of-living concerns after Tuesday’s political rebuke. He has also been looking for ways to get back into the good graces of ranchers, who are upset about his announcement last month that the United States will buy more beef from Argentina, which ranchers fear will reduce the prices they can charge.

Trump won partly because of the severe inflation that took place during Joe Biden’s presidency. But inflation remains elevated, at about 3 percent, a year after Trump’s election, and exit polls this week showed economic discontent.

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The Biden administration contributed to inflation with regulation and massive economic stimulus. Democrats tried to address their political problem by blasting corporations for raising prices. Biden specifically called out meatpackers in his 2022 State of the Union. Later in his term, he attacked grocery stores. Vice President Kamala Harris ran on imposing the “first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food.”

If the Biden administration wanted to deal with inflation, it should have controlled spending and eased regulations. But that would have been politically difficult. Blaming price-fixing is easy. It’s the same story with Trump: His tariffs are raising prices on imported goods. Meanwhile, he’s trying to take control of the Federal Reserve while demanding it cut interest rates.

Trump is a very different president from Biden, but this episode shows a parallel. Both governed to please their base. But a base-pleasing agenda is politically vulnerable if it’s accompanied by inflation. Solving that problem requires a deeper rethink than unleashing regulators on the food supply chain.

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