Trump: Cutting food assistance in budget bill "is going to give everybody much more food because prices are..."

[Miles Archer]

Cognitive Decline? Trump Goes on Nonsensical Rant About Food Benefits

Donald Trump seems to think that cuts to food assistance mean cheaper and more abundant food for everyone.

“You campaigned on lowering the price of groceries. How can you justify cutting food assistance in this [budget] bill?” a reporter asked the president, on Capitol Hill Monday, after he emerged from a meeting with House Republicans.

“Let me just tell you, the cut is going to give everybody much more food because prices are coming way down. Groceries are down,” Trump said. He added, “You know that eggs now? Way down. Everybody’s buying eggs. Grocery’s down. Energy’s down. Gasoline? They’re now buying—they’re buying gasoline now for $1.99.”

First of all, gasoline is not selling for that price anywhere in the United States, except possibly in wholesale markets. And cuts to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, commonly referred to as food stamps, would not lower food prices. As the head of a Nevada food bank told NBC last month, “These reductions don’t just affect people facing hunger—they also hurt the retailers, farmers, and businesses that supply fresh, local food to our region.”

[MarineCombatEngineer]

1. If I didn't know any better,

I would think this is satire from either the Onion or The Borowitz Report.
It's hard to tell the difference between what's satire and what's real with this criminal gang in the WH.

[DENVERPOPS]

15. Both Borowitz and the Onion

said YEARS ago, that they were giving up writing because they couldn't come close to out doing what Trump and the Republicans were doing in Realiity.....LOL

[soldierant]

24. Borowitz qas not writing for some years

because he and the New Yorker left each other. But he'd back. On Substack. And still managing to outdo reality most of the time.

[Brenda]

2. Must. Not. Watch. Or. Respond.

Godfuckingdammit if I hear one more word from the media about Biden's mental state while sane-washing this squatter who is the biggestfuckingliarinhistory I'm gonna explode!

[Miles Archer]

6. I hadn't looked at it through that lens, but you're right

It seems like from the moment Joe's diagnosis became public, Trump has incrementally and steadily ventured further into pure unadulterated madness.

[sop]

8. Trump had already gone completely off the rails, the media just needed a way to create some false equivalence.

[Miles Archer]

11. He probably turned that final corner on January 6

He sat there for three and a half hours and watched that mayhem on TV and was begged by everyone from Congress members to Cabinet members and family members and didn't budge. He just took it all in and snickered. Maybe that was when he made it 100% over to the dark side, and anyone who gets there never comes back.

[DENVERPOPS]

18. HE MOSTLY WATCHED IT ALONE!

He was so "excited"...... Maybe, he was doing something ??????? And on his cell phone, yelling: HEY VLAD, did you see that ????

[Vinca]

3. How on earth does cutting food assistance make more food suddenly appear? Because the people

no longer getting help starve to death? I swear the brain worm is contagious among that bunch.

[Norrrm]

4. 1+

[Brenda]

7. It is horrific any way you try to decipher what the Chump means.

He has no idea how much groceries (oh, an "old fashioned" word he likes) cost the average American per week.

He has no idea how much gas costs and how much people use in their cars.

We thought Bush the Sr. was out of touch with grocery scanners, Chump doesn't think poor people need to eat food.

[Norrrm]

36. The brain worm in question

The brain worm in question

[allegorical oracle]

38. That's how I interpreted it. Dead people don't eat or receive SNAP benefits. In

djt's demented brain that makes perfect economic sense.

[calimary]

43. THIS, DAMMIT!!!

It’s certainly not for me to say, but I suppose there might be someplace “nice ‘n’ warm” where people like him go when they die.

If there’s ANY justice, karmic or otherwise.

[TommieMommy]

5. Gas $3 a gallon. Eggs $5 a dozen. Pork chops on sale 4 chops for $8 😡 everything is higher

[synni]

9. I get $36.50 per week in SNAP

Don't spend it all in one place.

[badhair77]

10. Ok, I thought this was from the Onion.

But I thought the Onion article (trump complaining about Kamela paying her step-children to campaign for her) was real. The line is faded.

[oasis]

12. "The Great Gaslighter"

[Mossfern]

13. This is what I think his logic is:

If we cut food assistance, all that "food" will be available for sale to the public
If there is so much food now available in the stores then the increase in product will bring the prices down

I think that he doesn't know that "food assistance" is not actual food, but funding to buy food

Is he really that stupid?

[Abolishinist]

17. If one considers logic to be a system of principles that uses reason

to determine if a conclusion is true or untrue, then in my view he has never exhibited such.

But yes, he really IS that stupid!

Stupid - having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.

[Silver Gaia]

32. That makes total sense.

There used to be USDA "food assistance" where you could go stand in line once a month, if you qualified as poor enough, and get a 5# block of cheese, some canned goods, a little produce, etc. He probably thinks it's like that, and of course, no one can tell him that isn't what this is because, to his mind, he knows everything. So, he thinks it's food set aside to give away that would then be freed for the stores to sell. But he is taking away money from people to buy food with instead. That means prices won't go down, they will more likely go up because less will be bought. What a fucking moron.

[Cha]

14. While he Stuffs his GD Uglly face with

Shit. Those who need SNAP to help feed their kids can go without.

[paleotn]

16. Hey Jake Tapper

Your book is about the wrong guy, you sleazy jackass!

[Wiz Imp]

19. From the information I can find, the average price of eggs here in January 2024 was about $2.50 dozen

At the store yesterday, I noticed the cheapest price was $4.19 a dozen, with the average of all choices probably close to $5.00. The price of eggs may have dropped slightly from it's all-time high in March/April of this year, but it is still close to double the price from just over a year ago. Doesn't sound like positive news to me.

[allegorical oracle]

39. Just bought 18 eggs for $8 at a big box store. Always open the container to check for

broken eggs, as were a couple of other women near me. We all started laughing -- these eggs, marked "large," looked like pigeon eggs they were so small.

[NBachers]

20. "The way to have more money is to have less money."

It’s like the guy who told me years ago: “If you want to have real long hair, cut all your hair off.“

[spanone]

21. A gasbag without a soul or brain, yet it lives.

[Evolve Dammit]

22. The huckster, carnival barker is clueless, delusional and a traitor.

[Emile]

23. Gas around here in Indiana is over $3 pg, diesel

is over $3.40 pg

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

26. Over $4 a gallon in Washington state

[William Seger]

25. It's called "power psychosis" -- a mental illness -- because he's living in a delusional world

Delusions of grandeur, delusions of everything being a positive or negative reference to himself, delusions about what's happening in the world -- it's what happens when malignant narcissists like Putin and *RUMP have too much unchallenged power.

[progree]

27. Not true on energy's down. While groceries was down 0.4% in April, its up (slightly) over the last 3 months

Last edited Wed May 21, 2025, 07:26 AM - Edit history (1)

And food away from home is up a hefty amount (see below)

Tuesday May 13
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-calls-fed-cut-rates-175540927.html

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday repeated his call for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, saying prices for gas, groceries and "practically everything else" are down.

"No Inflation, and Prices of Gasoline, Energy, Groceries, and practically everything else, are DOWN!!! THE FED must lower the RATE, like Europe and China have done," Trump said on Truth Social.

Not true - see graphs below and the LBN CPI OP at https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143458249. Prices overall were up 0.2% from March to April.
One can see the components month-by-month increases and annual increase in the Table A at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm

Gasoline declined 0.1% but energy overall is up 0.7% in April. It's true that groceries are down 0.4% (after a 0% increase in February and a 0.5% increase in March, so the 3 month average is slightly up). Food away from home is up 0.4% each month for the past 3 months.

"Practically everything else" is up.

The CPI rise averaged 1.6% over the past 3 months on an annualized basis (core CPI: 2.1%)
The April one month increase annualized is: CPI: 2.7%, (core CPI: 2.9%)

News report from the source: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm
CPI data series: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0
CORE CPI data series: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0L1E

I annualize everything to be comparable to each other and to compare to the Fed's 2% target

They are calculated using the actual index values, not from the rounded off monthly change numbers.
REGULAR CPI


CORE CPI


Both the CPI and Core CPI 3 month rolling average were helped a lot when the huge January increases dropped out of the 3-month window.

The rolling 12 months averages graphs are in the OP. They were helped by last year's big April 2024 month-over-month increases dropping out of the 12 month window. What drops out of the window is just as important as what enters the 12 month window (which is the latest).

Next month, the rolling 12 month average will not be helped by the "drop out" effect because May 2024 month-over-month increases that are dropping out of the 12 month windows are small: just 0.5% ANNUALIZED for the CPI, and 1.7% ANNUALIZED for the core CPI.

[bucolic_frolic]

28. It's a power trip. Prices are down because I say so.

Who are you to question my belief?

[Ol Janx Spirit]

29. Sure, it would makes sense that if grocery prices dropped then your reduced food assistance...

...would buy the same amount of food--or even more. But that is not a predictable reality for those receiving assistance. Tying assistance to some reliable index of actual food prices might make sense if your real goal is to make sure people that need assistance get it while the government does not spend money it doesn't have to in order to help people. That does not seem to be what is happening here.

While they are at it they could tie tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations to actual economic growth. But again, that's not what is happening here.

[wiggs]

30. He gets a thrill when he lies. Shows his power and immunity, he thinks. nt

[allegorical oracle]

40. After this last decade of enduring his presence, have decided that he has no clue

that he's lying. In his mind, everything he says is true and everyone who corrects him with accurate facts is lying to make him look bad.

[Faux pas]

31. Yeah Sure Ya Betcha

and I imagine we'll all start shitting gold ingots soon.

[kacekwl]

33. And he gets away with

that answer to the question. Seriously monkeys can do a better job at journalism or whatever the fuck they do.

[republianmushroom]

34. Dumb and dumber. Jeez !

[Blue Owl]

35. Piss on their leg and tell them it's raining, you fat fuck felon

[Joinfortmill]

37. People who voted for the traitor voted for their own destruction

[progressoid]

44. And they'll blame it on immigration.

or trans people or Biden or whatever the latest thing the right wing media tells them to blame.

[vankuria]

41. Grocery stores will take a hit

Especially food stores in poorer areas where many residents depend on food stamps, I wouldn’t be surprised if some even close down.

[calimary]

42. We've had some questionable presidents, but we've never had one - like the one we have now.

Never. But then, we’ve never had a weasel in the White House before. At least not before the donald.

Hey, I think that phrase has a nice ring to it. Cuz if ANYBODY deserves the weasel description, it’s the donald.

“Weasel in the White House.”

Could also be “The Weasel in the White House”.