{"id":754138,"date":"2026-07-10T06:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/754138\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T06:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:30:14","slug":"the-price-of-staying-on-trumps-good-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/754138\/","title":{"rendered":"The Price of Staying on Trump\u2019s Good Side"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>(Photo illustration by Bill Kuchman\/The Bulwark | Photos: Getty, Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

GREAT NEWS! THERE\u2019S A BRAND-NEW marketing hack, courtesy of our salesman-in-chief. If you need free advertising, just claim you have a terrific deal, and say Donald Trump convinced you to do it. He won\u2019t be able to resist hawking your wares.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week Walmart found itself enlisted in such a marketing campaign, when President Trump posted<\/a> that at his administration\u2019s \u201crequest to celebrate our great Country\u2019s 250th birthday\u201d the company would be \u201cdropping the price for a pound of ground beef by almost 15%, among many other products.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a huge deal for the many millions of Americans who, smartly, shop at Walmart, which is a truly patriotic Company who loves the U.S.A.<\/p>\n

There are a few things worth noting about this.<\/p>\n

First, if you\u2019ve ever shopped at Walmart\u2014or really any major superstore\u2014you know they have sales and promotions all the time. Especially around midsummer<\/a>. In fact, consumer analysts sometimes refer to the doldrums of July as \u201cpromotion week<\/a>,\u201d as retailers offer deep discounts to lure errant, sunshine-soaking shoppers back indoors.<\/p>\n

In Walmart\u2019s case, a spokesperson told me that the retailer began one of its regular price \u201cRollback\u201d events early last week\u2014i.e., the week before Trump blasted out his claim that price cuts were imminent and would be happening at his request.<\/p>\n

The backstory, according to unnamed sources cited<\/a> by the Wall Street Journal, is that a USDA official had a phone call with Walmart, Kroger, and Albertsons in the days before July Fourth to discuss beef prices. During that call, per the Journal, Walmart said that it \u201calready had plans to reduce prices on many items for the summer, including beef.\u201d<\/p>\n

USDA, which has been arguing<\/a> for months that beef prices have been artificially inflated, relayed that information to Trump, who seems to have misunderstood the timing, blasted out the news, and claimed credit for the price cuts.<\/p>\n

When contacted for comment, Walmart referred me to a statement<\/a> it had released minutes after that Trump post on Monday. The statement read like pretty much every other superstore press release, promoting price cuts at Walmart and Sam\u2019s Club for select summer cookout staples like hot dogs and a store-brand ice cream.<\/p>\n

The statement did not mention Trump, and a Walmart spokesperson declined comment on the record further.<\/p>\n

In a normal democracy\u2014one with, say, free markets and the rule of law\u2014a major retailer should have no issue publicly confirming that it made pricing decisions for business reasons only, and not under any sort of political pressure. Firms should be able to say that they are prioritizing shareholder interests (as they are legally required to do) rather than the president\u2019s ego. But we do not live in that kind of democracy at the moment. We live in Donald Trump\u2019s America, where corporations might reasonably fear retribution if they contradict his preferred message\u2014or worse, embarrass him.<\/p>\n

After all, last year, when Walmart executives merely acknowledged the obvious fact that higher tariffs would feed into higher prices, Trump fired a warning shot at the retailer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWalmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain,\u201d he posted<\/a> on Truth Social. And then, echoing the greedflationists<\/a> among the populist left, he complained about how much money the company was making: \u201cWalmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected. Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, \u2018EAT THE TARIFFS,\u2019 and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I\u2019ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

If you believe in quaint notions like the rule of law, and if you think companies ought to be able to lower prices without looping in the president, you\u2019d fit right in here. Consider signing up for a Bulwark+ membership and joining our growing pro-democracy community.<\/p>\n

Join Bulwark+ today<\/a><\/p>\n

THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME that Trump has amplified, and claimed credit for, a company\u2019s promotions, with or without its consent. In fact it\u2019s not even the first time he did it with Walmart.<\/p>\n

Last Thanksgiving, he claimed credit<\/a> for what Walmart touted as its \u201cbest offer yet<\/a>.\u201d At multiple<\/a> rallies<\/a> he cheered<\/a> that \u201cThanksgiving this year will cost 25 percent less than Thanksgiving last year under Sleepy Joe Biden.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that case, Walmart\u2019s Thanksgiving bundle had indeed gotten cheaper\u2014because the bundle included different brands and fewer food products<\/a> than the previous year\u2019s deal. So not quite apples to apples (or turkeys to turkeys, or whatever). But who cares about pesky methodological considerations, given the potential for mutually beneficial free advertising?<\/p>\n

That same month, the White House also blasted out DoorDash\u2019s \u201cState of Local Commerce\u201d report<\/a> as evidence \u201cthat inflation has been tamed.\u201d Inflation had very much not been tamed, of course, according to official government measures like the consumer price index. Even the firing<\/a> of the top civil servant at the agency that produces the CPI could not hide this problem.<\/p>\n

Apparently, the White House had hunted for alternative measures to cherry-pick. It found the DoorDash report, which bragged that breakfast foods ordered on the delivery app had (just fortuitously) recently become a terrific deal.<\/p>\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump has since also tried to slap his brand on other corporate promotions, including by taking credit for the return of Extra Value Meals<\/a> at McDonald\u2019s. He has promoted a bunch of \u201cdeals\u201d he made on prescription drugs<\/a>, through both the TrumpRx platform and \u201cmost favored nation\u201d agreements on drug pricing. But it\u2019s not clear how much the public is actually benefiting from those developments, given that White House agreements with pharma companies are opaque and unenforceable<\/a> and appear to cover only a tiny fraction of popular drugs.<\/p>\n

More recently, there\u2019s the sketchy Trump-endorsed<\/a> \u201cFreedom Fuel Network,\u201d a selection of gas stations across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. They appear to be selling gasoline at an unsustainable discount<\/a>, charging prices far lower than other gas stations and well below cost<\/a>. The ownership of these Potemkin stations remains unknown<\/a>; as does the identity of whoever may be subsidizing them and to what end. The White House says it\u2019s not directly involved, and the attorney listed on the Freedom Fuel Network\u2019s trademark application<\/a> (filed July 1) did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

But there are certainly other deep-pocketed companies and individuals who have used private funds to subsidize Trump\u2019s government<\/a> initiatives<\/a>, sometimes with suspect motives. And Trump has often tried to bend market pricing<\/a> to his whims, too, with or without favor-trading.<\/p>\n

Share The Bulwark<\/a><\/p>\n

MOST OF THE TIME, though, Trump is the proverbial rooster taking credit for the sunrise. He looks for opportunities to slap his name on politically useful things that companies were already planning to do\u2014seasonal sales, major investments, hiring, et very much cetera.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the aluminum plant<\/a> getting built in Alabama that the Trump White House tried to steal credit for\u2014even though construction began in 2022<\/a>, when Joe Biden was still president. If anything, Trump\u2019s aluminum tariffs have jeopardized the future of that factory, according to the president\u2019s own allies<\/a>. There are similar examples across other industries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not every company has the means to make a big, spendy splash to suck up to the president. I don\u2019t know why more companies don\u2019t get in on the sale grift, though. Just ping the White House every time you already have a promo going on. You\u2019re already stuck in Donald Trump\u2019s America; why not get the free advertising?<\/p>\n

Next time Jeff Bezos talks to Trump, he should promise to institute Prime Day (or better yet, \u201cPRIME DAY\u201d in all caps) in the president\u2019s honor. Heck, every bar in America should commit to slash prices at happy hour to celebrate how happy they are that Sleepy Joe is gone. It\u2019s clear our president wants to control prices; maybe our best option is to pretend he already does.<\/p>\n

Leave a comment<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 The real corporate hero we need, as I\u2019ve said<\/a> many times before, is Costco. The company has been unafraid to buck Trump (on both economic<\/a> and culture-war<\/a> issues). It also delivers low prices and pays<\/a> its workers well. At one point Democrats recognized this, when former President Barack Obama cheered<\/a> the warehouse club\u2019s high pay and low employee turnover. These days Democrats are more likely to namecheck Costco as being among the \u201cgiant grocery stores and massive food conglomerates\u201d responsible for high grocery prices and \u201cripping people off<\/a>.\u201d (When you\u2019re blaming Costco for high prices, you\u2019ve lost the plot.)<\/p>\n

\u2014 Another way companies have been currying favor with the Trump administration involves giving their products a MAHA makeover. Mars Inc. is launching a new line of M&M\u2019s<\/a>, without the blue ones, because it told the administration it would use all-natural dyes and a natural blue food coloring is uneconomical at scale. Walmart has also committed<\/a> to remove artificial dyes from its private-label food products. Of course if the Trump administration were actually committed to removing toxins from foodstuffs, it probably wouldn\u2019t do things like this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed this week that the administration has abandoned plans<\/a> to put Harriett Tubman on the $20 bill. Those plans had been in the works for a decade.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The U.S. brain drain continues: Chemist Omar Yaghi<\/a>, who had been a professor at UC Berkeley when he won the Nobel Prize in chemistry last year, has departed the United States for a job at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He will lead a new AI materials lab. In a recent interview<\/a> with Scientific American, he decried declining financial support for scientific research: \u201cThe current state is not so encouraging because of the cutting back on grants and support of science by the very agencies that many university researchers rely on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) introduced legislation<\/a> to punish Canada because some Canadian provinces have blocked sales of U.S.-produced spirits. If only she could figure out who started this here trade war. . .<\/p>\n

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