President-elect Trump said his victory in the White House last month came down to two things.
“I won on the border and I won on groceries,” the president-elect said in an interview on NBC News' “Meet the Press.”
President Trump then took a dig at the high grocery prices millions of Americans are paying as a key reason for the White House's convincing victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
FOX News Voter Analysis: How Trump Won the White House
President-elect Trump takes the stage before speaking at the FOX Nation Patriot Awards on Thursday, December 5, 2024 in Greenvale, New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
“A very simple word, grocery. Almost, I mean, who uses that word? It was a short period of time, and I won the election on that basis,” Trump said in a video taped on Friday and broadcast on Sunday. This was emphasized in an interview.
Americans want President Trump to lower prices
Inflation has eased significantly from its peak in 2022, but food prices remain significantly higher than before the coronavirus pandemic swept the world nearly five years ago.
Americans are spending 22% more on groceries than they paid when Biden took office nearly four years ago, according to the latest Consumer Price Index inflation data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And voter dissatisfaction with soaring food prices and other effects of inflation provided a boost to Mr. Trump as he seeks to retake the White House.
Voters say the economy is by far the most important issue facing the country, followed by immigration and abortion, according to a Fox News voter analysis of the 2024 election.
A Fox News voter analysis of more than 110,000 voters and 18,000 non-voters nationwide found that 40% said inflation was the single most important factor in their vote, nearly 2-to-1. answered that they supported Trump. AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 registered voters, found similar results.
During his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump slammed Mr. Biden and Mr. Harris on the economy and promised to lower prices.
“Grocery prices are going up,” President Trump said at a press conference in August, standing next to a table of processed foods.
“If I win, I'm going to lower prices right from day one,” he vowed.
And President Trump vowed in an interview on “Meet the Press”: “We're going to bring these prices down significantly.”
President-elect Trump gestures after speaking at the America First Institute Gala at the Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
However, President Trump reiterated in the interview that he would follow through on his campaign promise to impose large tariffs on imports from major trading partners.
During the presidential campaign, Harris argued that President Trump's flat tariffs would raise the prices of many goods and amount to a “sales tax on the American people.”
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The customs duty is A tax that the government imposes on goods that are imported or exported. They can raise the price of imported goods and make local products more attractive to buy.
Asked in a recent interview if he could guarantee that Americans would not be forced to pay more to buy goods due to tariffs, he said: “I can't guarantee anything.”
