At a rally in Arizona, former president Donald Trump criticized Joe Biden for how he handled the inflation wave that has been crushing American homes. He warned the crowd that the real rate of inflation is much higher than the reported 9.1%.
Trump said these things at a rally for former TV host Kari Lake in Prescott Valley on Friday. Lake is running for governor of Arizona in the upcoming GOP primary.
In his speech, Trump bragged about his own economic record, which included high job growth and low inflation.
“Biden made inflation worse than it had been in 47 years.”
At a rally, Trump said, “During my administration, we had the best economy in history, and there was no inflation.” He also said, “Biden caused the worst inflation in 47 years.”
In February 2017, Trump’s first full month in office, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of inflation, was at 2.8%. During his time in office, the CPI gauge went up and down, with a high of 2.9% in July 2018 and a low of 1.4% in January 2021, his last month in office.
Under Biden, inflation has been rising quickly, and in June 2022, it hit a record-setting 9.1% annual rate.
On CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on July 24, Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce, said that inflation in the United States had “probably” reached its highest point. She did, however, say that things “outside of our control,” such as a new war or epidemic, could cause prices to go up again.
“Biden’s war on energy in the U.S.”
Trump brought up what he called “Biden’s war on American energy,” but he didn’t say much about the policies of Biden that he thinks have caused inflation to go up.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the rise in energy prices is one of the main reasons for inflation. Energy prices make up about half of the headline inflation rate.
Since he took office, Biden has signed a number of executive orders that affect the oil industry. For example, he revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, stopped new leases for oil and gas drilling on federal lands and waters, and stopped some government agencies from giving fossil fuel subsidies.
Since Biden was elected, gas prices have gone up by about 50%. The president has given several reasons for this, including a lack of refining capacity, worldwide supply shortages caused by a fast rise in demand after the pandemic, the conflict in Ukraine, and corporate greed.
In an effort to lower gas prices, Biden has asked U.S. refiners to make more oil. He has also ordered the release of crude stockpiles from the national strategic reserve and asked OPEC to make more oil.
