Americans Left Shocked As 79-Year-Old Trump Issues Chaotic Inflation Warning

President Donald Trump told attendees at the McDonald's Impact Summit by insisting 'prices are coming down' even as evidence and experts warn tariffs and policy choices are keeping living costs elevated.

In a rousing speech to franchise owners and suppliers on 18 November 2025, Mr Trump sought to reframe the public debate on affordability, repeatedly taking credit for falling prices while also defending a sweeping tariff programme he says is 'making America rich again'. The remarks, delivered to a friendly audience but replayed across news channels, combined self-praise, policy boasts, and striking admissions that drew criticisms from economists and consumer groups. The White House posted the full remarks and video of the summit, which show Mr Trump making repeated claims about energy, Thanksgiving shopping, and tariffs.

Trump's Claim: 'Prices Are Coming Down' — What He Said And Where

Mr Trump told McDonald's owners: 'Your chief executive and your chairman... they tell me prices at McDonald's are coming down,' adding that Americans were 'so damn lucky' he won the 2024 election because his policies allegedly normalised inflation. The administration's live video of the speech is the primary record of those comments.

Economists and independent observers immediately tested that claim against official data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the headline Consumer Price Index fell to roughly 3.0% year-on-year in September 2025, down from a 9.1% peak in June 2022, but still above the Federal Reserve's 2% target and materially felt by households. That official trajectory underlines why voters still report pain at the till even as headline inflation softens from pandemic highs.

Tariffs: Revenue, Reality, And The Inflation Link

A central element of Mr Trump's defence was tariffs. He has repeatedly portrayed his tariff regime as both a revenue boon and a tool to protect US industry; Treasury and budget data show customs duties have surged in 2025 as new levies took effect. Independent trackers estimate duties rose sharply, fiscal-year customs receipts reached record levels in 2025, and some analysts now put annual tariff collections in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Reuters and other budget trackers document the surge in customs receipts attributed to the administration's tariffs.

But experts caution that revenue is not the same as net public benefit. Policy institutes and fact-checkers note that while tariffs raise government receipts, the administration claimed vast daily sums; those figures overstate the fiscal windfall and underplay the economic cost to consumers and businesses. FactCheck.org and similar analysts have argued Mr Trump's repeated suggestion that tariffs generate '£1.6 billion a day' (approximately $2 billion) misstates daily averages and misleads on who ultimately pays. Tariffs, by design, shift costs into higher consumer prices, supply-chain changes, and retaliatory responses.

To put the revenue in perspective: Reuters and budget analysts reported customs duties of about $195 billion in fiscal 2025, roughly £148 billion using mid-November 2025 exchange rates (approx. £1 = $1.3155). That sum buoyed receipts but did not eliminate pressures on households facing high grocery, energy, and transport costs.

The Human Cost: Households, Grocery Bills, And Public Reaction

For many Americans, statistical declines in headline inflation are cold comfort. Food, shelter, and fuel remain politically salient costs; BLS tables show food and energy categories still exerting outsized influence on monthly price moves. At the McDonald's summit, Mr Trump invoked concrete examples, cheaper Thanksgiving baskets at major retailers, and falling petrol prices, to argue ordinary Americans will notice relief. Critics say highlighting such isolated instances misses the broader picture of sustained price pressures for essentials such as housing and certain food categories.

Reaction among policymakers and commentators has been sharp. Some administration aides and sympathetic business owners applauded the boost to franchise economics; Democratic critics and consumer advocates accused the president of minimising the practical impact of inflation and of using selective data to distract from trade tensions and market disruption driven by tariffs. Independent economists told Reuters and other outlets that tariffs have likely added to costs in some sectors even as they produced unusual revenue spikes for the Treasury.

Whether the president's insistence that 'prices are coming down' will register with voters depends on future months of CPI releases, grocery price trends, and whether tariff adjustments reduce or shift costs. For now, the exchange between impassioned political rhetoric and sober economic indicators leaves many Americans uncertain, and many journalists and economists are digging into the numbers behind the soundbites.

President Trump's McDonald's intervention was theatrical, targeted, and controversial; what remains is the arithmetic of policy and the lived reality of ordinary households.