Donald Trump vowed to lower grocery prices as soon as he took office, but the flurry of executive orders he signed in his first week has barely addressed food prices, according to Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats. The lawmakers wrote in a letter.
The letter to Trump accused the president of backtracking on a campaign promise to lower supermarket bills starting on the first day of his term.
“During your campaign, you repeatedly promised that if elected president you would lower the prices of ‘fast’ food,” read the letter, which was sent to Trump on Sunday evening and is the first was shared with NBC News. “But during your first week in office you have instead focused on mass deportations and pardoning the January 6 attackers.”
Trump has made inflation and food prices a focus of his campaign for a second term. Revealing everything from the teen box of Tic Tacs At a rally across North Carolina Tables full of groceries outside his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club to express his commitment to reducing voters’ grocery bills.
But many of the executive orders Trump has signed since Inauguration Day have touched only briefly on food, Warren, D-Mass., said in the letter, which was co-authored by Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. was written, and signed. A total of 20 Democrats.
“Your only action on costs was an executive order that made only minimal mention of food prices, and no specific policy to reduce them,” he wrote, citing a Trump administration memo. Helping Americans with their living expenses “By ending harmful, coercive ‘climate’ policies that drive up food and fuel prices.”
The Trump administration did not immediately comment on the letter, which comes as food prices continue to rise. Statistics from the Department of Labor show that Grocery prices increased by 1.8 percent From December 2023 to December 2024. The largest increase was seen in the price of eggs, which rose by 36.8% over the same period due to the bird flu crisis that has killed millions of poultry.
The Democratic lawmakers warned in the letter that companies “often take advantage of crises like pandemics and avian flu outbreaks to raise prices far beyond what is needed to cover rising costs.”
Warren has long advocated on behalf of consumers. Last year, he and others introduced a bill that would make it illegal to sell goods or services.Overall overpriced“— a term to be defined by the Federal Trade Commission. The bill has yet to move forward.
In May, he sent one. Letter to then-President Joe Biden Urging your administration to lower food prices through better federal enforcement of price manipulation.
In statements to NBC News, Warren and McGovern complimented Trump on how he had spent his first week in office.
“If Donald Trump is serious about working to lower grocery prices, he needs to buckle down, pick up these tools to lower egg prices and keep his promises,” Warren said. Warren said.
McGovern added that Trump “hasn’t done a damn thing to lower food prices or help hard-working people struggling to put food on the table.”
“We are ready to work with him, not just empty rhetoric,” he said.
About 9 in 10 voters were either somewhat or a lot. Concerned about the cost of groceriesThe letter to Trump was referred to.
“Yet instead of working to lower our grocery bills, you spent the first week of your administration repealing birthright citizenship, pardoning those who attacked the US Capitol on January 6 and used to rename a mountain.”
Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” last month that his Election Day victory came down to two issues: immigration and food affordability.
“I won at the border, and I won at the grocery,” he said.
But later in December, he acknowledged that it would be “very difficult” to cut grocery bills.
“It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up,” he told Time magazine.
Lindsay Owens, executive director of the economic think tank Groundwork Collaborative, said the president’s first step should be to rein in the powerful family corporations that have driven up prices in recent years.
“Families expect President Trump to follow through on his promises. He will show wisdom to the FTC and other agencies to promote competition, invest in supply chains, and crack down on price-fixing tactics. Ga, which raises food and grocery prices, “but if his first slate of executive orders is any indication, he’s setting himself up to fail.”
