{"id":58342,"date":"2025-12-11T21:20:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T21:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/58342\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T21:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T21:20:07","slug":"trump-said-affordability-is-a-hoax-in-his-pennsylvania-speech-what-do-the-latest-numbers-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/58342\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump said affordability is a \u2018hoax\u2019 in his Pennsylvania speech. What do the latest numbers show?"},"content":{"rendered":"

At a casino in Mt. Pocono, Pa., on Tuesday night, President Trump delivered the first in a series of speeches meant to ease voter concerns about the cost of living ahead of next year\u2019s midterm elections \u2014 concerns that have fueled off-year Democratic victories in New Jersey, Virginia<\/a>, Florida<\/a> and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to start campaigning, sir,\u201d Trump quoted his chief of staff telling him. \u201cWe have to win the midterms and you\u2019re the guy that\u2019s going to take us over the midterms.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his remarks, Trump claimed that his administration was \u201ccrushing\u201d inflation and getting much higher wages for Americans. He touted the stock market as \u201cthe only thing that is really going up big.\u201d And he insisted that \u201cprices are coming down very substantially\u201d while blaming his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, and dismissing Democratic messaging about affordability<\/a> as a \u201choax.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, they always have a hoax,\u201d the president said. \u201cThe new word is ‘affordability.’ So they look at the camera and they say, \u2018This election is all about affordability.\u2019 \u2026 And everyone says, \u2018Oh, that must mean Trump has high prices.\u2019 No. Our prices are coming down tremendously from the highest prices in the history of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

So how high is the cost of living? And is it going up or down? To separate reality from spin \u2014 something that both sides engage in \u2014 Yahoo News is keeping track of the key numbers that show where things actually stand.<\/p>\n

Inflation<\/p>\n

Inflation is the rate at which the price of goods and services increase over time. The annual inflation rate peaked at 9.1% during the pandemic, then fell to 3% by the end of Biden\u2019s term. After Trump took office, inflation dipped to 2.3%. But now it\u2019s back up to 3%.<\/p>\n

Prices<\/p>\n

A lot of what happens with the prices of basic goods is out of the president’s control. The price of eggs, for example, skyrocketed early in Trump\u2019s second term amid a raging bird flu outbreak<\/a>; it has since plummeted back to 2024 levels.<\/p>\n

The average price of a gallon of gas, meanwhile, has hovered around $3 since last fall; bread has held steady as well. Yet overall prices have continued to rise since Trump took office<\/a>, and the costs of certain things \u2014 beef and electricity in particular \u2014 have climbed at an even faster rate.<\/p>\n

Tariffs<\/p>\n

During his second term, Trump has imposed broad new import levies<\/a> that have propelled America\u2019s overall average tariff rate to 18%<\/a> \u2014 the highest since 1934 \u2014 while raising costs for U.S. households by $1,600 to $2,600 per year, according<\/a> to independent<\/a> estimates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Trump\u2019s tariffs have also raised hundreds of billions of dollars for the federal government \u2014 revenue that the president has proposed sending back to Americans in the form of $2,000 dividend checks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Housing<\/p>\n

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate peaked near 8% in 2023. It\u2019s fallen since then, and continued to modestly decline this year as the Federal Reserve has lowered the benchmark interest rate<\/a>. But mortgages are still about twice as expensive (6%) as they were in 2021 (under 3%).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, home values have leveled off and rent has continued to rise.<\/p>\n

Jobs and wages<\/p>\n

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered sudden, massive job losses in early 2020. But the unemployment rate went on to rapidly decline under Biden, falling below 4% in 2022. Since the summer of 2024, joblessness has risen slightly; the most recent report, from September, puts it at 4.4%, and private employers reportedly shed 32,000 jobs in November<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Real wages \u2014 which measure the actual purchasing power of your income adjusted for inflation, rather than just the dollar amount you earn \u2014 have climbed consistently under Biden and Trump.<\/p>\n

Stock market<\/p>\n

Stocks had been rising since late 2022 \u2014 but after a dip this February and March, the market really took off amid the ongoing AI boom. About 60% of American adults own stocks, often through their retirement plans. The other 40% do not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At a casino in Mt. Pocono, Pa., on Tuesday night, President Trump delivered the first in a series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31943,1578,28,30,29,5610,31942],"class_list":["post-58342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-annual-inflation-rate","tag-joe-biden","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-president-trump","tag-walmart-supercenter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}